Abstract

Employment is (1) an important predictor of sustainable recovery for people with drug-use problems, (2) a high priority among those in recovery, and (3) an important goal for welfare policies. However, previous explorations of the process of gaining employment have been inadequate. The purpose of this study was to explore how people in recovery from lives dominated by drug use engage in securing paid employment, and how they make sense of this process. In-depth interviews were performed on three different occasions over 2.5 years with people experiencing the demanding process of gaining employment. We analyzed their stories employing a narrative approach, and located them in a social structural context drawing on human-capital framework. Our findings show how our participants drew on socially circulating stories of the ‘useless addict’, ‘normality’, and the ‘employable citizen’, which intersect with human-capital logic embedded in public activation programs. The knowledge obtained from this study demonstrates how socially circulating stories and human-capital logic contribute to the perception that people have about their readiness for work and how they can become employable. Further, it illuminates how recovery discourses mirror neoliberal values constituting the contextual setting in which the job hunt takes place.

摘要

就业是 (1) 有吸毒问题的人可持续康复的重要预测指标，(2) 康复者的高度优先事项，以及 (3) 福利政策的重要目标。然而，以往对就业过程的探索并不充分。本研究的目的是探讨从吸毒为主的生活中康复的人们如何从事有偿就业，以及他们如何理解这一过程。在 2.5 年的时间里，我们在三个不同的场合对经历艰难求职过程的人们进行了深入访谈。我们采用叙事的方式分析了他们的故事，并将他们置于利用人力资本框架的社会结构背景中。我们的发现表明我们的参与者如何利用社会上流传的“无用瘾君子”的故事，“常态”和“可就业公民”，它们与公共激活计划中嵌入的人力资本逻辑相交。从这项研究中获得的知识表明，社会流传的故事和人力资本逻辑如何影响人们对他们是否做好工作准备以及他们如何能够就业的看法。此外，它阐明了恢复话语如何反映新自由主义价值观，这些价值观构成了求职发生的背景。