Third-sector discourses and the future of (un)employment: Skilled labor, new technologies, and the meaning of work

Philip Graham; Neil Paulsen

doi:10.1515/text.2002.017

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Third-sector discourses and the future of (un)employment: Skilled labor, new technologies, and the meaning of work

Journal article

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Third-sector discourses and the future of (un)employment: Skilled labor, new technologies, and the meaning of work

Philip Graham and Neil Paulsen

Text, Vol.22(3), pp.443-467

2002

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/text.2002.017

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Abstract

employment policy

third sector

discourse analysis

globalisation

rhetorical formations

critical theory

In this article we analyze a 600,000-word corpus comprised of policy statements produced within supranational, national, state, and local legislatures about the nature and causes of (un)employment. We identify significant rhetorical and discursive features deployed by third-sector (un)employment policy authors that function to extend their legislative grasp to encompass the most intimate aspects of human association. We focus on functional aspects of third-sector discourses currently being deployed to redefine what it means to be a skilled worker, what it means to be unemployed, the meaning of welfare, and the meaning of work more generally. More broadly, by identifying these elements of third-sector discourses, we also identify their historical roots and social significance. Under scrutiny, the skilled-labor discourses of third-sector policy reveal that the object of the policies is to divest public and private institutions of particular burdens, including the unemployed. Third-sector and skilled discourses seek to redefine social welfare program, relationships between individuals, families, businesses, communities, and the state, the meaning of work, and, most of all, the meaning of unemployment so that it would ideally no longer exist as a concept. If this last objective is achieved, the problem of unemployment is ideally cured, thus realizing the technocratic function expected of policy makers to solve extensive social problems, in this case by defining them out of existence. © Walter de Gruyter.

Details

Title: Third-sector discourses and the future of (un)employment: Skilled labor, new technologies, and the meaning of work
Authors: Philip Graham (Author) - University of Queensland
Neil Paulsen (Author) - University of Queensland
Publication details: Text, Vol.22(3), pp.443-467
Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
Date published: 2002
DOI: 10.1515/text.2002.017
ISSN: 0165-4888
Copyright note: Copyright © 2002 The Authors. The author accepted version is reproduced here in accordance with the publishers' copyright policy. The final publication is available at www.degruyter.com
Organisation Unit: Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic); University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Creative Industries - Legacy
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99450343202621
Output Type: Journal article

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