Slutskaya, Natalia, Game, Annilee, Morgan, Rachel, Delabre, Izabela and Newton, Tim (2025) Status fixity and dirty workers' experiences of recognition. Sociology. ISSN 0038-0385
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Abstract
Based on interviews with waste management workers, this study focuses on changes in low-paid/low-status workers’ experiences of recognition during and after the pandemic. In this article, we explore these developments, drawing on the work of Honneth, Fraser, Neckel and Reckwitz. Our analysis challenges the rather romanticised treatment of recognition that persists in existing research on dirty work. In particular, though the pandemic heightened societal awareness of the value of essential services, we found that these emancipatory moments were short lived, as status hierarchies remained largely unchallenged. Instead, workers’ experiences during the pandemic suggest a growing sense of status fixity and polarisation which, following Neckel and Reckwitz, reflects a broader sharpening in economic and cultural inequality.
Item Type: | Article |
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Uncontrolled Keywords: | sdg 10 - reduced inequalities ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/reduced_inequalities |
Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Norwich Business School |
UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Employment Systems and Institutions |
Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
Date Deposited: | 08 Aug 2025 08:30 |
Last Modified: | 30 Sep 2025 16:30 |
URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/100113 |
DOI: | 10.1177/00380385251365514 |
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