Is Any Job Better Than No Job? Utilising Jahoda’s Latent Deprivation Theory to Reconceptualise Underemployment

2024/06/25 by Vanessa Beck, Tracey Warren, Clare Lyonette · 1 citation
Health Professions · Social Sciences · #Digital Economy and Work Transformation #Employment and Welfare Studies #Retirement, Disability, and Employment

paper · pdf · doi:10.1177/09500170241254794

openalex publication_date 2024/06/25 · openalex created_date 2024/06/26 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Underemployment is a widely discussed but complex concept. This article progresses discussions and provides a new sociological conceptualisation. It builds on a classic theory of unemployment, Jahoda et al.’s ‘latent deprivation theory’ (LDT), that identified five ‘latent functions’ provided by jobs, besides a wage: time structure, social relations, sense of purpose/achievement, personal identity and regular activity. LDT was ground-breaking in illuminating previously hidden injuries of joblessness. This article proposes that LDT can be similarly ground-breaking for reconceptualising underemployment: it demonstrates conceptually the multiple ways in which the mere existence of a job is insufficient in protecting individuals from socially and psychologically negative impacts associated with unemployment. A sociology of underemployment can help better understand complex, shifting and precarious work and expose inherent forms of suffering and injustice.

Citations

• It’s All about Control
• Online, on call: the spread of digitally organised just‐in‐time working and its implications for standard employment models
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• Fixed-term Employment and Subjective Well-being: A Comparison of Natives, Migrants and Refugees

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