The mundane administration of worker bodies: From welfarism to neoliberalism

Abstract

We are in the midst of a disjuncture between welfarist rationalities which assume collective insurance techniques such as workers' compensation, and neoliberal rationalities which assume a greater burden on individual responsibility to avoid risk. This study examines the mundane administration of the welfarist Canadian workers' compensation system through a qualitative study of how managers in four Ontario newspaper workplaces understand and respond to workers complaining of repetitive strain injury (RSI). Findings indicate that managers are informed by a pervasive neoliberal rationality and view RSI-prone workers as undisciplined and neglectful of their own bodies. Managers worked to reduce workers' claims for compensation through extensive surveillance of 'risky' worker bodies. The worker body emerges as a biopolitical terrain for the working out of tensions between welfarist and neoliberal rationalities as worker health becomes a locus for discourse on where to draw the line between rights and responsibilities and between civilian and the state. While others have targeted macrostructural reasons for the malfunctioning of workers' compensation, these data point to an alternative micropolitical explanation. This paper argues that the shift from a welfarist to a neoliberal rationality in workers' compensation consists in the mundane administration of worker bodies.

Keywords:

• Repetitive Strain Injury
• Workers' Compensation
• Newspaper Industry
• Biopolitics