IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v31y2017i3p465-482.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

‘Rusty, invisible and threatening’: ageing, capital and employability

Author

Listed:
  • Dina Bowman

    (Brotherhood of St Laurence, Australia)

  • Michael McGann

    (The University of Melbourne, Australia)

  • Helen Kimberley

    (Brotherhood of St Laurence, Australia)

  • Simon Biggs

    (The University of Melbourne, Australia)

Abstract

Levels of mature-age unemployment and under-employment are increasing in Australia, with older jobseekers spending longer unemployed than younger jobseekers. This article focuses on two key explanations of the difficulties confronting older jobseekers: human capital theory, which focuses on the obsolescence of older workers’ job skills, and ageism in employment. Drawing upon narrative interviews with older Australians, it critically engages with both these understandings. Using a Bourdieusian analysis, it shows how ageing intersects with the deployment of different forms of capital that are valued within particular labour market fields to shape older workers’ ‘employability’. By examining how class, gender and age intersect to structure experiences of marginalization, it questions conventional analyses that see older workers as discriminated against simply because they are older.

Suggested Citation

  • Dina Bowman & Michael McGann & Helen Kimberley & Simon Biggs, 2017. "‘Rusty, invisible and threatening’: ageing, capital and employability," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 31(3), pages 465-482, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:31:y:2017:i:3:p:465-482
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017016645732
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017016645732
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0950017016645732?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tony Dobbins & Alexandra Plows & Huw Lloyd-Williams, 2014. "‘Make do and mend’ after redundancy at Anglesey Aluminium: critiquing human capital approaches to unemployment," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 28(4), pages 515-532, August.
    2. Susan McDaniel & Paul Bernard, 2011. "Life Course as a Policy Lens: Challenges and Opportunities," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 37(s1), pages 1-13, February.
    3. Peck, Jamie & Theodore, Nikolas, 2000. "Commentary: 'Work First': Workfare and the Regulation of Contingent Labour Markets," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 24(1), pages 119-138, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zagel, Hannah, 2015. "Understanding differences in labour market attachment of single mothers in Great Britain and West Germany," Working papers of the ZeS 03/2015, University of Bremen, Centre for Social Policy Research (ZeS).
    2. Haddad, Lawrence James & Adato, Michelle, 2001. "How effectively do public works programs transfer benefits to the poor?," FCND briefs 108, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    3. Hannah Zagel, 2015. "Understanding Differences in Labour Market Attachment of Single Mothers in Great Britain and West Germany," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 773, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    4. Herwig Immervoll & Stephen P. Jenkins & Sebastian Königs, 2015. "Are Recipients of Social Assistance 'Benefit Dependent'?: Concepts, Measurement and Results for Selected Countries," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 162, OECD Publishing.
    5. Georgia van Toorn, 2021. "Neoliberalism’s friends, foes and fellow travellers: What can radical feminist and disability perspectives bring to the policy mobilities approach?," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(4), pages 723-740, June.
    6. Gary Slater, 2002. "The Poverty of Flexibility," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(2), pages 243-251.
    7. Zhelyazkova N., 2013. "Parental leave within the broader work‐family trajectory : What can we learn from sequence analysis?," MERIT Working Papers 2013-049, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    8. Peichl, Andreas & Siegloch, Sebastian, 2012. "Accounting for labor demand effects in structural labor supply models," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 129-138.
    9. Holland, Brian, 2018. "Defining and Measuring Workforce Development in the United States in a Post-Bipartisan Era," GLO Discussion Paper Series 234, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    10. Maite Blázquez, 2009. "Earnings mobility in Spain: the role of job mobility and contractual arrangements," Spanish Economic Review, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 179-205, September.
    11. Karen Soldatic & Helen Meekosha, 2012. "The Place of Disgust: Disability, Class and Gender in Spaces of Workfare," Societies, MDPI, vol. 2(3), pages 1-18, September.
    12. Vyacheslav Volchik & Liudmila Klimenko & Oxana Posukhova, 2018. "Socio-economic sustainable development and the precariat: a case study of three Russian cities," Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 6(1), pages 411-428, September.
    13. Karen Soldatic & Kelly Somers & Kim Spurway & Georgia van Toorn, 2017. "Emplacing Indigeneity and rurality in neoliberal disability welfare reform: The lived experience of Aboriginal people with disabilities in the West Kimberley, Australia," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(10), pages 2342-2361, October.
    14. Jurgen Essletzbichler, 2003. "From Mass Production to Flexible Specialization: The Sectoral and Geographical Extent of Contract Work in US Manufacturing, 1963-1997," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(8), pages 753-771.
    15. Anne Gray, 2002. "Jobseekers and Gatekeepers: the Role of the Private Employment Agency in the Placement of the Unemployed," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 16(4), pages 655-674, December.
    16. Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina & Serrano-Padial, Ricardo, 2007. "Wage Growth Implications of Fixed-Term Employment: An Analysis by Contract Duration and Job Mobility," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(5), pages 829-847, October.
    17. Holzner, Christian & Meier, Volker & Werding, Martin, 2010. "Workfare, monitoring, and efficiency wages," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 157-168, March.
    18. Daniel Perkins & Rosanna Scuttella, 2008. "Improving Employment Retention and Advancement of Low-Paid Workers," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 11(1), pages 97-114.
    19. Julian Clarke, 2014. "Pre-employment training for the unemployed: A case study of a call centre foundation programme," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 29(1-2), pages 113-128, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:31:y:2017:i:3:p:465-482. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.