Critical to care Armstrong, Pat; Armstrong, Hugh; Scott-Dixon, Krista
Critical to care,
c2008, 20080628, 2008, 2008-01-01, 2008-06-14, 20080101
eBook
Who counts as a health care worker? The question of where we draw the line between health care workers and non-health care workers is not merely a matter of academic nicety or a debate without ...consequences for care. It is a central issue for policy development because the definition often results in a division among workers in ways that undermine care.
Critical to Careuses a wide range of evidence to reveal the contributions that those who provide personal care, who cook, clean, keep records, and do laundry make to health services. As a result of current reforms, these workers are increasingly treated as peripheral even though the research on what determines health demonstrates that their work is essential. The authors stress the invisibility and undervaluing of 'women's work' as well as the importance of context in understanding how this work is defined and treated.
Through a gendered analysis,Critical to Careestablishes a basis for discussing research, policy, and other actions in relation to the work of thousands of marginalized women and men every day.
Introduction
Small businesses (SBs) play an important role in global economies, employ half of all workers, and pose distinct workplace health problems. This systematic review of qualitative ...peer-reviewed literature was carried out to identify and synthesize research findings about how SB workplace parties understand and enact processes related to occupational health and safety (OHS).
Methods
The review was conducted as part of a larger mixed-method review and in consultation with stakeholders. A comprehensive literature search identified 5067 studies. After screening for relevance, 20 qualitative articles were identified. Quality assessment led to 14 articles of sufficient quality to be included in the meta-ethnographic findings synthesis.
Results
This review finds that SBs have distinctive social relations of work, apprehensions of workplace risk, and legislative requirements. Eight themes were identified that consolidate knowledge on how SB workplace parties understand OHS hazards, how they manage risk and health problems, and how broader structures, policies and systems shape the practice of workplace health in SBs. The themes contribute to ‘layers of evidence’ that address SB work and health phenomena at the micro (e.g. employer or worker behavior), meso (e.g. organizational dynamics) and macro (e.g. state policy) levels.
Conclusions
This synthesis details the unique qualities and conditions of SBs that merit particular attention from planners and occupational health policy makers. In particular, the informal workplace social relations can limit workers’ and employers’ apprehension of risk, and policy and complex contractual conditions in which SBs are often engaged (such as chains of subcontracting) can complicate occupational health responsibilities. This review questions the utility of SB exemptions from OHS regulations and suggests a legislative focus on the particular needs of SBs. It considers ways that workers might activate their own workplace health concerns, and suggests that more qualitative research on OHS solutions is needed. It suggests that answers to the SB OHS problems identified in this review might lie in third party interventions and improved worker representation.
This paper identifies and examines the possible contributions that emerging fields of study, particularly feminist public health, can make to enhancing and expanding trans/feminist theory and ...practice. A feminist public-health approach that is rooted in a tradition of political economy, social justice and equity studies, and an anti-oppression orientation, provides one of the most comprehensive "toolboxes" of perspectives, theoretical frameworks, methods, practices, processes, and strategies for trans-oriented scholars and activists.
Feminists have produced a number of important critiques of the way in which fat and fit are understood. While fitness provides opportunities for women’s personal and political empowerment, in ...practice, because fitness is so frequently viewed as a cosmetic project and connected to achieving thinness, such opportunities have generally failed to materialize despite rapid increases in women’s sports and exercise participation. I examine the experiences of larger female athletes in strength and power-based sports to examine how they negotiate their identities as athletes and women, and how they navigate “fitness” and “fatness.”
Scott-Dixon questions one's hidden assumptions in understanding and describing the information technology (IT) workforce. She employs social relations theory to analyze the extent to which IT tends ...to be theorized in terms of binary frameworks typical of digital metaphors, as opposed to the model of a continuum represented by analog technology. She also takes issue with the tendency of current researchers to accept without question or thorough investigation the supposed novelty of various jobs in the networked IT age, of concepts of skilled and unskilled technology labor, and of the systems and terminology used to classify IT work.
