‘Make do and mend’ after redundancy at Anglesey Aluminium: critiquing human capital approaches to unemployment
Allbwn ymchwil: Cyfraniad at gyfnodolyn › Erthygl › adolygiad gan gymheiriaid
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Yn: Work, Employment and Society, Cyfrol 28, Rhif 4, 2014, t. 515-532.
Allbwn ymchwil: Cyfraniad at gyfnodolyn › Erthygl › adolygiad gan gymheiriaid
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TY - JOUR
T1 - ‘Make do and mend’ after redundancy at Anglesey Aluminium
T2 - critiquing human capital approaches to unemployment
AU - Dobbins, A.
AU - Plows, A.J.
AU - Dobbins, T.
AU - Plows, A.
AU - Lloyd-Williams, H.
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - This article tracks workers’ responses to redundancy and impact on the local labour market and regional unemployment policy after the closure of a large employer, Anglesey Aluminium (AA), on Anglesey in North Wales. It questions human capital theory (HCT) and its influence on sustaining neo-liberal policy orthodoxy – focused on supplying skilled and employable workers in isolation from other necessary ingredients in the policy recipe. It is concluded that HCT and associated skills policy orthodoxy are problematic because supply of particular skills did not create demand from employers. Ex-AA workers faced a paradox of being highly skilled but underemployed. Some workers re-trained but there were insufficient (quality) job opportunities. In picking up the pieces after redundancy many workers found themselves part of a labour ‘precariat’ with little choice but to ‘make do and mend’.
AB - This article tracks workers’ responses to redundancy and impact on the local labour market and regional unemployment policy after the closure of a large employer, Anglesey Aluminium (AA), on Anglesey in North Wales. It questions human capital theory (HCT) and its influence on sustaining neo-liberal policy orthodoxy – focused on supplying skilled and employable workers in isolation from other necessary ingredients in the policy recipe. It is concluded that HCT and associated skills policy orthodoxy are problematic because supply of particular skills did not create demand from employers. Ex-AA workers faced a paradox of being highly skilled but underemployed. Some workers re-trained but there were insufficient (quality) job opportunities. In picking up the pieces after redundancy many workers found themselves part of a labour ‘precariat’ with little choice but to ‘make do and mend’.
U2 - 10.1177/0950017013491454
DO - 10.1177/0950017013491454
M3 - Article
VL - 28
SP - 515
EP - 532
JO - Work, Employment and Society
JF - Work, Employment and Society
SN - 0950-0170
IS - 4
ER -