MISRECOGNITION and MALDISTRIBUTION THE CASE OF AGED CARE WORKERS This paper uses the concept of recognition the acknowledgement of particular others and their contribution to shared projects ID: 637767
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Slide1
Society of Heterodox Economics (IAFFE Stream), December 2 2013
MISRECOGNITION
and
MALDISTRIBUTION
: THE CASE OF AGED CARE WORKERSSlide2
This paper…
uses
the concept of recognition -
the acknowledgement of particular others and their contribution to shared projects
– in an analysis of the pay and working conditions of aged care workers.
Is co-authored with Therese Jefferson, Rhonda Sharp, Rachel
Ong
, Gill
Lewin
and Valerie AdamsSlide3
Misrecognition features in historical writing:
“He feels himself out of the light of others, groping in the dark. Mankind takes no notice of him; he rambles and wanders unheeded. In the midst of a crowd, at church, in the market, at a play, at an execution or coronation, he is as much in obscurity as he would be in a garret or a cellar. He is not disapproved of, censured or reproached: he is only not seen. This total inattention is to him mortifying, painful and cruel...To be wholly overlooked and to know it are intolerable...To feel ourselves unheeded chills the most pleasing hope - damps the most fond desire - checks the most agreeable wish - disappoints the most ardent expectations of human nature.”
John Adams 1790Slide4
“The poor man on the contrary, is ashamed of his poverty. He feels that it either places him outside of the sight of mankind, or, that if they take any notice of him, they have, however, scarce any fellow-feeling with the misery and distress which he suffers. He is mortified upon both accounts, for though to be overlooked, and to be disapproved of, are things entirely different, yet as obscurity covers us from the daylight of
honour
and approbation, to feel that we are taken no notice of, necessarily damps the most agreeable hope, and disappoints the most ardent desire, of human nature. The poor man goes out and comes in unheeded, and when in the midst of a crowd is in the same obscurity as if shut up in his own
hovel”.
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
:
Misrecognition is a source of harmSlide5
“Nature, when she formed man for society, endowed him with an original desire to please, and an original aversion to offend his
brethren.
The Theory of Moral
Sentiments
:
Recognition is a source of motivation
She taught him to feel pleasure in their favourable, and pain in their unfavourable regard
.”Slide6
The Theory of Moral Sentiments:
The desire for recognition is an alternative mechanism for coordinating individuals’
behaviour
“The
first desire [for approbation] could only have made him wish to appear to be fit for society. The second [the desire of being what ought to be approved of] was necessary in order to render him anxious to be really fit
.”Slide7
However, until recently the topic of recognition has suffered its own invisibility, especially in economics
Brennan and Pettit’s “The Economy of Esteem” includes the concept
But most recent work on recognition has been done by
c
ritical theorists:
Axel Honneth
(who emphasises the damage done to people’s sense of self by misrecognition)Nancy Fraser (who
emphasises how misrecognition is a status injury, and may contribute to maldistribution) Slide8
Our Study: An Overview
Uses survey and interview data from the Missing Workers
project to
examine
the experience and impact of misrecognition amongst aged care workers
Produces some findings on the prevalence, manifestations, impacts and sources of misrecognitionSlide9
The Missing Worker Project
Collected info on recognition via a large scale survey and linked interviews with
mature-age
aged care workers
Survey data from close to 4000 respondents and interview data from 45 participants
Measures of recognition:
“Do you think your work in aged care is valued ‘highly’, ‘moderately’, or ‘not at all’ by:People in your local community?
Higher level management in your organisation?
Clients?Family? “How satisfied are you with your pay, given the importance of your work to society?”Slide10
Evidence from the survey data
On the Prevalence of Misrecognition.
A substantial number of aged care workers feel
misrecognised
:
Close to 20% reported feeling ‘not at all’ valued by their local community and by higher-level management
Close to 50% reported that they were ‘not at all’ satisfied with their pay, given the importance of their work to societyOn the Impacts of Misrecognition.Misrecognition
threatens the future provision of aged care needs:Results from a logistic regression analysis of the determinants of intention to leave aged
care show that the likelihood of leaving aged care is 33.5% higher among workers who perceive a low level of community recognition; and 50% higher among those who perceive a low level of organisational recognitionSlide11
Evidence from the interview data
Misrecognition manifests in inter-personal relationships:
S
ome
of the care workers we interviewed provided examples
of how they felt their work roles were invisible in social settings…
I said I’m a nurse, oh yeah, and then they went onto the next, and she said, oh that’s … and no one wanted to hear me.
and distribution:Other participants gave examples of how their wages did not acknowledge the value of their contribution to society
“[A] supermarket worker earns more than a carer does. And we literally have people’s lives in our hands
.” Slide12
Evidence from the interview data
On the Impacts of Misrecognition
Misrecognition harms the subjectivity of aged care workers
.
Some of the participants spoke
of the hurt caused by lack of recognition
: “We work really hard with very little paid for what we do and that I find is frustrating. It really is because it is hurting actually sometimes
.”
Consequently, misrecognition undermines the ability of these workers to pursue wage claims.Several participants provided insights to how misrecognition
damaged their sense of their self and their sense of entitlement to higher wages “
I don’t know - am I worth more than a basic wage? I’m not unskilled, I suppose an unskilled worker basic wage would be $18 I would imagine, well I’m a skilled worker – perhaps now I, I should earn more than that – at least $25 perhaps, $25 an hour.
“Slide13
Evidence from the interview data
And a complexity:
The
notion that
recognition
should not be sought for virtuous work places care workers at a disadvantage:
One participant explained how the ‘virtue script’ is sometimes used against aged care workers: “they’ll try and do the Florence Nightingale trick, ‘she’s here because she loves it.’…[
Employers are] “leaning on that sort of devotion…”
Another participant’s comments showed how adopting a virtue script can undermine care workers’
willingness to push for higher wages : Q: What keeps you in aged care? A: “The love, the love and the old people. It’s got to be there, who’s going to look after them, who’s going to look after these old people? You should see me – I very rarely take a day off, because I think, who’s going to look after them? But I’ve got to stop…” Slide14
Evidence from the interview data
On the impacts of misrecognition
Low wages (in part due to misrecognition) make it difficult for aged care
organisations
to attract and retain staff:
“I think you lose good staff, sometimes purely because of financial reasons, which to me is a bit sad…
” Low wages threaten the motivation to provide ‘good’ care
:“But
a lot of the people that I’ve come against, the ones that are having to work and having to put up with the conditions and the money, they’re not doing a service to their client, they’re not giving them that, oh gee, didn’t you like the soup today, you know – you know what I mean?” Slide15
Sketch: part of a framework relating to misrecognition applied to aged care workSlide16
Misrecognition & Maldistribution
in
aged care
work
Aged care
workers’ attempts to claim recognition for their social contributions are sometimes construed as denying the reality of their caring motives Slide17
Conclusions
Misrecognition is a relevant concept in the analysis of
maldistribution
and inefficiency in the Australian aged-care sector
Future work will focus on the sources and remedies of misrecognition