Reconciling market and moral logics on a minimum wage: Supermarket work in Australia during the first two years of the SARS-COV-2 pandemic
Essential workers generate and maintain basic services that populations must receive, without interruption, to sustain a healthy, functional society. When SARS-COV-2 spread around the world, mundane low-paid work in essential non-healthcare industries such as supermarkets, became high risk, makeshif...
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Elsevier
2024-12-01
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| Series: | SSM: Qualitative Research in Health |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667321524001045 |
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| author | Chris Degeling Sittichoke Chawraingern Gwendolyn L. Gilbert Claire Hooker Su-yin Hor Jane Williams |
| author_facet | Chris Degeling Sittichoke Chawraingern Gwendolyn L. Gilbert Claire Hooker Su-yin Hor Jane Williams |
| author_sort | Chris Degeling |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Essential workers generate and maintain basic services that populations must receive, without interruption, to sustain a healthy, functional society. When SARS-COV-2 spread around the world, mundane low-paid work in essential non-healthcare industries such as supermarkets, became high risk, makeshift and unpredictable. Drawing on recent scholarship in the sociology of work, we conducted 32 interviews to capture how supermarket workers in Australia navigated the trade-offs and moral choices entailed in performing essential roles in non-health settings during a pandemic. We found that, as key assumptions about the resilience of globalised modernity and its supporting systems were tested, supermarket workers found themselves at the centre of experiments and public debates about the effectiveness and appropriateness of different infection control measures. Compensating for a lack of preparedness by governments and corporations, they were forced to accept, and then tasked with resolving inconsistencies between the political economy of low paid work and the moral economy of social provision. Given the experiences of those who found themselves in essential roles outside healthcare, there is an urgent need to reconceptualize what ‘successful’ pandemic preparedness and response entails. Reflecting on their experiences, these workers told us that expressions of solidarity and concern, from those not sharing their position of biological and financial precarity, were of little value. Drawing on the market logics that define their employment as essential and replaceable, the workers we spoke to observed that fair renumeration for risks and better protections were the most important considerations in recasting how societies prepare for future pandemics. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c29d188a50cb4474a2d9323f728b062e |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2667-3215 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
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| series | SSM: Qualitative Research in Health |
| spelling | doaj-art-c29d188a50cb4474a2d9323f728b062e2025-08-20T02:38:13ZengElsevierSSM: Qualitative Research in Health2667-32152024-12-01610049510.1016/j.ssmqr.2024.100495Reconciling market and moral logics on a minimum wage: Supermarket work in Australia during the first two years of the SARS-COV-2 pandemicChris Degeling0Sittichoke Chawraingern1Gwendolyn L. Gilbert2Claire Hooker3Su-yin Hor4Jane Williams5Australian Centre for Health Engagement, Evidence and Values, School of Health and Society, University of Wollongong, Australia; Corresponding author.Australian Centre for Health Engagement, Evidence and Values, School of Health and Society, University of Wollongong, Australia; Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology, Thammasat University, Bangkok, ThailandSydney Infectious Disease Institute, The University of Sydney, Sydney, AustraliaSydney School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, AustraliaSchool of Public Health, Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, AustraliaAustralian Centre for Health Engagement, Evidence and Values, School of Health and Society, University of Wollongong, AustraliaEssential workers generate and maintain basic services that populations must receive, without interruption, to sustain a healthy, functional society. When SARS-COV-2 spread around the world, mundane low-paid work in essential non-healthcare industries such as supermarkets, became high risk, makeshift and unpredictable. Drawing on recent scholarship in the sociology of work, we conducted 32 interviews to capture how supermarket workers in Australia navigated the trade-offs and moral choices entailed in performing essential roles in non-health settings during a pandemic. We found that, as key assumptions about the resilience of globalised modernity and its supporting systems were tested, supermarket workers found themselves at the centre of experiments and public debates about the effectiveness and appropriateness of different infection control measures. Compensating for a lack of preparedness by governments and corporations, they were forced to accept, and then tasked with resolving inconsistencies between the political economy of low paid work and the moral economy of social provision. Given the experiences of those who found themselves in essential roles outside healthcare, there is an urgent need to reconceptualize what ‘successful’ pandemic preparedness and response entails. Reflecting on their experiences, these workers told us that expressions of solidarity and concern, from those not sharing their position of biological and financial precarity, were of little value. Drawing on the market logics that define their employment as essential and replaceable, the workers we spoke to observed that fair renumeration for risks and better protections were the most important considerations in recasting how societies prepare for future pandemics.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667321524001045COVID-19Working conditionsPandemic preparednessSocial roleObligations to societyPublic health ethics |
| spellingShingle | Chris Degeling Sittichoke Chawraingern Gwendolyn L. Gilbert Claire Hooker Su-yin Hor Jane Williams Reconciling market and moral logics on a minimum wage: Supermarket work in Australia during the first two years of the SARS-COV-2 pandemic SSM: Qualitative Research in Health COVID-19 Working conditions Pandemic preparedness Social role Obligations to society Public health ethics |
| title | Reconciling market and moral logics on a minimum wage: Supermarket work in Australia during the first two years of the SARS-COV-2 pandemic |
| title_full | Reconciling market and moral logics on a minimum wage: Supermarket work in Australia during the first two years of the SARS-COV-2 pandemic |
| title_fullStr | Reconciling market and moral logics on a minimum wage: Supermarket work in Australia during the first two years of the SARS-COV-2 pandemic |
| title_full_unstemmed | Reconciling market and moral logics on a minimum wage: Supermarket work in Australia during the first two years of the SARS-COV-2 pandemic |
| title_short | Reconciling market and moral logics on a minimum wage: Supermarket work in Australia during the first two years of the SARS-COV-2 pandemic |
| title_sort | reconciling market and moral logics on a minimum wage supermarket work in australia during the first two years of the sars cov 2 pandemic |
| topic | COVID-19 Working conditions Pandemic preparedness Social role Obligations to society Public health ethics |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667321524001045 |
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