Working to Feel Better or Feeling Better to Work? Discourses of Wellbeing in Austerity Reality TV

Main Article Content

Rowan Voirrey Sandle
Katy Day
Tom Muskett

Keywords

austerity, mental health, reality TV

Abstract

By focusing on discourses within the ‘cultural economy’ of reality TV, the following considers the wider positioning of waged labor as essential for mental health during a period of austerity.  The findings suggest that discourses of mental health and wellbeing construct figures of a ‘good’ welfare-recipient as one who achieves wellbeing through distancing themselves from the welfare state and progress toward waged work. Framed within the landscape of ‘psycho-politics’, wellbeing and unemployment are arguably entangled to legitimize current welfare policy, placing responsibility on individuals for economic and health security and dissolving concerns over austerity’s systemic impact.

 

Abstract 1147 | Word Downloads 101 PDF Downloads 101 TXT Downloads 124

References

Allen, K. (2017, May 2). UK needs £15bn in cuts or tax rises to clear deficit by 2022, says IFS. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/may/02/uk-cuts-tax-deficit-ifs-austerity-public-spending.

Allen, K., Tyler, I., & De Benedictis, S. (2014). Thinking with 'White Dee': The gender politics of 'Austerity Porn'. Sociological Research Online, 19(3), 1–7.

Arribas-Ayllon, M., and Walkerdine, V. (2009). ‘Foucauldian discourse analysis’. In W. Stainton-Rogers & C. Willig (Eds.). Handbook of Qualitative Research in Psychology. London: Sage.

Atkinson, S. (2015). Workfare and the medical humanities: A response to Lynne Friedli and Robert Stearn. Medical Humanities, 41(1), 48–49.
Austerity and a malign benefits regime are profoundly damaging mental health. (2015, April 17). Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/17/austerity-and-a-malign-benefits-regime-are-profoundly-damaging-mental-health.

Barr, B., Kinderman, P., & Whitehead, M. (2015). Trends in mental health inequalities in England during a period of recession, austerity and welfare reform 2004 to 2013. Social Science & Medicine, 147, 324–331.

BBC One Prices up the Cost of Living. (2013, April 26). Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2013/the-cost-of-living.html.

Beresford, P. (2015, May 17). For service users who rely on benefits, the Queen's speech brought no relief. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2015/may/28/service-users-rely-benefits-queens-speech-no-relief-social-care-nhs.

Beresford, P. (2016). Presenting welfare reform: Poverty porn, telling sad stories or achieving change?. Disability & Society, 31(3), 421–425.

Biressi, A., & Nunn, H. (2012). Reality TV: Realism and revelation. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

Brijnath, B., & Antoniades, J. (2016). “I'm running my depression:” Self-management of depression in neoliberal Australia. Social Science & Medicine, 152, 1–8.

Butterworth, P., Leach, L. S., Strazdins, L., Olesen, S. C., Rodgers, B., & Broom, D. H. (2011). The psychosocial quality of work determines whether employment has benefits for mental health: Results from a longitudinal national household panel survey. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 68(11), 806–812.

Callard, F., & Stearn, S. (2015). Facing psychological coercion and manipulation has become a daily part of claiming benefits. The Conversation. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/facing-psychological-coercion-and-manipulation-has-become-a-daily-part-of-claiming-benefits-42839

Collins, A. (2013, August 23). Poor show: TV’s new poverty porn. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2013/aug/23/tv-poverty-porn.

Couldry, N. (2008). Reality TV, or the secret theatre of neoliberalism. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 30(1), 3–13.

Cavero, T., & Poinasamy, K. (2013). A cautionary tale: The true cost of austerity and inequality in Europe. Oxfam International.

De Benedictis, S., & Gill, R. (2016, July 16). Austerity neoliberalism: A new discursive formation. Retrieved from www.opendemocracy.net/uk/austerity-media/sara-de-benedictis-rosalind-gill/austerity-neoliberalism-new-discursive-formation.

Fine, M., & Glendinning, C. (2005). Dependence, independence or inter-dependence? Revisiting the concepts of ‘care’ and ‘dependency’. Ageing & Society, 25(4), 601–621.

Frasquilho, D., Matos, M. G., Salonna, F., Guerreiro, D., Storti, C. C., Gaspar, T., & Caldas-de-Almeida, J. M. (2015). Mental health outcomes in times of economic recession: A systematic literature review. BMC Public Health, 16(1), 115.

Friedli, L., & Stearn, R. (2015). Positive affect as coercive strategy: Conditionality, activation and the role of psychology in UK government workfare programmes. Medical Humanities, 41(1), 40–47.

Froggett, L. (2012). Psychosocial research. In S. Becker, A. Bryman and H. Ferguson (Eds) Understanding Research for Social Policy and Social Work. (pp. 179–186). Bristol: Policy Press.

Graby, S. (2015). Access to work or liberation from work? Disabled people, autonomy, and post-work politics. Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 4(2), 132–161.

Green, J., Buckner, S., Milton, S., Powell, K., Salway, S., & Moffatt, S. (2017). A model of how targeted and universal welfare entitlements impact on material, psycho-social and structural determinants of health in older adults. Social Science & Medicine, 187, 20–28.

Hamad, H. (2014). Fairy jobmother to the rescue?: Postfeminism and the recessionary cultures of reality TV. In D. Negra & Y. Tasker (Eds.),Gendering the Recession: Media and Culture in an Age of Austerity (pp. 223–245). Durham and London: Duke University Press.

Harris, R., Wathen, N., & Wyatt, S. (Eds.). (2010). Configuring health consumers: Health work and the imperative of personal responsibility. London: Palgrave.

Hitchen, E. (2016). Living and feeling the austere. New Formations, (87), 102–118. ·

Hunter, S. (2015). Power, politics and the emotions: Impossible governance? London: Routledge.


Jensen, T. (2014). Welfare Commonsense, Poverty Porn and Doxosophy. Sociological Research Online, 19(3), 1–7.

Jensen, T., & Ringrose, J. (2014). Sluts that choose vs doormat gypsies: Exploring affect in the postfeminist, visual moral economy of My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. Feminist Media Studies, 14(3), 369–387.

Jensen, T., & Tyler, I. (2015). “Benefits broods”: The cultural and political crafting of anti-welfare commonsense. Critical Social Policy, 35(4), 470–491.

Luongo, B. (2015). The 'common sense 'of austerity in Europe's historic bloc: A gramscian analysis. European Journal of Economic & Political Studies, 8(1).

Mattheys, K. (2015). The coalition, austerity and mental health. Disability & Society, 30(3), 475–478.

McGrath, L., Griffin, V., & Mundy, E. (2015). The psychological impact of austerity (Briefing Paper). Retrieved from https://psychagainstausterity.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/paa-briefing-paper.pdf.

Mills, C. (2018). ‘Dead people don’t claim’: A psychopolitical autopsy of UK austerity suicides. Critical Social Policy, 38(2), 302–322.

Mind. (2014 December). We’ve Got Work to Do: Transforming Employment and Back-to-Work Support for People with Mental Health Problems. Retrieved from https://www.mind.org.uk/media/1694795/back-to-work-report_2015_web-v3.pdf.

Negra, D., & Tasker, Y. (Eds.). (2014). Gendering the recession: Media and culture in an age of austerity. Durham and London: Duke University Press.

Rimke, H. (2016). Introduction-Mental and Emotional Distress as a Social Justice Issue: Beyond Psychocentrism. Studies in Social Justice, 10(1), 4–17.

Ringrose, J., & Walkerdine, V. (2008). Regulating the abject. Feminist Media Studies, 8(3), 227–246.

Rose, N. (1992). Governing the enterprising self. In Heelas, P. and Morris, P. (Eds) The Values of the Enterprise Culture: The Moral Debate (pp. 141–165). London: Routledge.

Runswick-Cole, K., & Goodley, D. (2015). DisPovertyPorn: Benefits street and the dis/ability paradox. Disability & Society, 30(4), 645–649.

Shakespeare, T., Watson, N., & Alghaib, O. A. (2017). Blaming the victim, all over again: Waddell and Aylward’s biopsychosocial (BPS) model of disability. Critical Social Policy, 37(1), 22–41.

Skeggs, B. (2009). The moral economy of person production: The class relations of self-performance on “reality” television. Sociological Review, 57(4), 626–644.

Shakespeare, T., Watson, N., & Alghaib, O. A. (2017). Blaming the victim, all over again: Waddell and Aylward’s biopsychosocial (BPS) model of disability. Critical Social Policy, 37(1), 22–41.

Stenner, P., Barnes, M., & Taylor, D. (2008). Editorial introduction: Psychosocial welfare: Contributions to an emerging field. Critical Social Policy, 28(4),411–414.

Taylor, D. (2011). Wellbeing and welfare: A Psychosocial analysis of being well and doing well enough. Journal of Social Policy, 40(4), 777–794.

Taylor, S. (2004). The right not to work: Power and disability. Monthly Review New York, 55(10), 30–31.

Thornton, D. J. (2010). Race, risk, and pathology in psychiatric culture: Disease awareness campaigns as governmental rhetoric. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 27(4), 311–335.

Tyler, I. (2013). Revolting subjects: Social abjection and resistance in neoliberal Britain. London: Zed Books Ltd..

Van Hal, G. (2015). The true cost of the economic crisis on psychological well-being: A review. Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 8, 17–25.

Vander Schee, C., & Kline, K. (2012). Neoliberal exploitation in reality television: Youth, health and the spectacle of celebrity “concern.” Journal of Youth Studies, 16(5), 1–14.

Void, J. (2015, February 13). Middle class solutions to working class problems is why charities like MIND keep getting it so wrong. Retrieved from https://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2015/02/13/middle-class-solutions-to-working-class-problems-is-why-charities-like-mind-keep-getting-it-so-wrong.

Waddell, G., & Burton, A. K. (2006). Is work good for your health and well-being?. London: The Stationery Office.

Wahlbeck, K., & McDaid, D. (2012). Actions to alleviate the mental health impact of the economic crisis. World Psychiatry, 11(3), 139–145.

Weekly top 30 programmes. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.barb.co.uk/whats-new/weekly-top-30.

Willott, S., & Griffin, C. (1997). Wham bam, am I a man?': Unemployed men talk about masculinities. Feminism & Psychology, 7(1), 107–128.

Wright, S. (2016). Conceptualising the active welfare subject: Welfare reform in discourse, policy and lived experience. Policy & Politics, 44(2), 235–252.