Work

Sacrificial Labour: Social Inequality, Identity Work, and the Damaging Pursuit of Elusive Futures

Year: 2019

Type: article

Abstract: to describe how individual self-sacrifice aligns workers' identities to the needs of organizations while gradually foreclosing the actualization of individuals' desired future selves. Drawing upon qualitative data from a longitudinal study of healthy individuals who enrol in paid clinical trials for the pharmaceutical industry, we make two contributions to the identity-work literature. First, we argue that the ongoing project of building stable and secure identities may become damaging when structural and cultural conditions defy even provisional, fragile attainment of this goal. Second, we reflect on how racialization and social marginalization erode identities and constrain possibilities for identity recuperation. Whereas the identity-work literature often focuses on the agential accomplishments of individuals, we provide a troubling account of how persistent social and economic inequalities confound identity realization efforts.

Source: Work Employment and Society

DOI: 10.1177/0950017019885069

Authors: Torin Monahan, Jill A Fisher

Institution: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Language: English

Topic: Management and Organizational Studies

Subfield: Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Reduced inequalities, Decent work and economic growth

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,900