posted on 2022-03-28, 21:05authored byGrace Patricia Vaughan
Using empirical material gathered from seven weeks of participant observations and interviews in western Sydney, this thesis analyses six individuals’ experience of long-term unemployment. The thesis examines intersecting influences - stigma, ethnicity and social class, and a sense of place, revealing the manner in which relations of power in everyday experiences are negotiated. Developing these concepts contextually necessitates an overview of structural processes of political economy and social welfare, as these help us understand historical dimensions of work and unemployment, and the contemporary spatially complex and negotiated state of employment-deprived areas of western Sydney, Australia.