Flexible Employment, Flexible Eating and Health Risks
Over the last 30 years, the risks to public health from working conditions have subtly shifted in line with new economic regimes, notably the shift towards contractualist, individualised market driven and ‘flexible’ regulation of employment associated with the neo-liberal project. Yet, the resulting...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
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Routledge
2014
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/20287 |
| _version_ | 1848750264523161600 |
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| author | Dixon, Jane Wodman, Dan Strazdins, Lyndall Banwell, Cathy Broom, Dorothy Burgess, John |
| author_facet | Dixon, Jane Wodman, Dan Strazdins, Lyndall Banwell, Cathy Broom, Dorothy Burgess, John |
| author_sort | Dixon, Jane |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Over the last 30 years, the risks to public health from working conditions have subtly shifted in line with new economic regimes, notably the shift towards contractualist, individualised market driven and ‘flexible’ regulation of employment associated with the neo-liberal project. Yet, the resulting transformation in temporal schedules has occurred without due consideration of potential health impacts. We contend that contemporary employment policies pose a threat to public health because of their impact on how time is valued, used and experienced. In particular, time matters for earning an income and for basic health behaviours, like healthy eating. The sociological theory of timescapes is used to interpret a qualitative study of food consumption and labour market engagement practices among three generations of Australians. We find that wide variability in individual employment schedules is accompanied by desynchronised social lives and less healthy eating practices. The research leads us to theorise that employment regimes that are flexible for employers require workers to live flexible or fluid cultural lives, disembedded from the temporal structure of previous social rituals, whether culinary, familial or friendship. The health consequences of this requirement remain unrecognised by policy-makers. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T07:34:04Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-20287 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T07:34:04Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | Routledge |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-202872017-09-13T13:48:13Z Flexible Employment, Flexible Eating and Health Risks Dixon, Jane Wodman, Dan Strazdins, Lyndall Banwell, Cathy Broom, Dorothy Burgess, John employment regimes public policy healthy eating flexible employment behavioural health risks Over the last 30 years, the risks to public health from working conditions have subtly shifted in line with new economic regimes, notably the shift towards contractualist, individualised market driven and ‘flexible’ regulation of employment associated with the neo-liberal project. Yet, the resulting transformation in temporal schedules has occurred without due consideration of potential health impacts. We contend that contemporary employment policies pose a threat to public health because of their impact on how time is valued, used and experienced. In particular, time matters for earning an income and for basic health behaviours, like healthy eating. The sociological theory of timescapes is used to interpret a qualitative study of food consumption and labour market engagement practices among three generations of Australians. We find that wide variability in individual employment schedules is accompanied by desynchronised social lives and less healthy eating practices. The research leads us to theorise that employment regimes that are flexible for employers require workers to live flexible or fluid cultural lives, disembedded from the temporal structure of previous social rituals, whether culinary, familial or friendship. The health consequences of this requirement remain unrecognised by policy-makers. 2014 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/20287 10.1080/09581596.2013.852162 Routledge restricted |
| spellingShingle | employment regimes public policy healthy eating flexible employment behavioural health risks Dixon, Jane Wodman, Dan Strazdins, Lyndall Banwell, Cathy Broom, Dorothy Burgess, John Flexible Employment, Flexible Eating and Health Risks |
| title | Flexible Employment, Flexible Eating and Health Risks |
| title_full | Flexible Employment, Flexible Eating and Health Risks |
| title_fullStr | Flexible Employment, Flexible Eating and Health Risks |
| title_full_unstemmed | Flexible Employment, Flexible Eating and Health Risks |
| title_short | Flexible Employment, Flexible Eating and Health Risks |
| title_sort | flexible employment, flexible eating and health risks |
| topic | employment regimes public policy healthy eating flexible employment behavioural health risks |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/20287 |