Sociomaterial struggle: An ethnographic analysis of power, discourse, and materiality in a working class unemployment support organization

Abstract

Using the ontological lens of sociomateriality with the theoretical notion of struggle, this critical ethnography explores interactions within an unemployment support organization run by white collar workers who train working class populations for skilled blue collar occupations. Results illustrate how sociomaterial struggle is enacted in two ways: struggle against embodied others and struggle against discursive forces. The first theme, struggle for control, occurs between blue collar trainees and white collar trainers. Second, the struggle for upward mobility, occurs when trainers and trainees struggled alongside one another in collaboration toward the goal of upward mobility. Participants' struggles organize in a complex combination of materiality and discourse throughout this unemployment support organization, mirroring social class relations in the United States.

KEYWORDS:

• Unemployment
• working class
• struggle
• sociomateriality
• upward mobility

Acknowledgements

This research received internal funding from the University of Missouri’s Rebecca Verser & Alumni Graduate Student Support Fund. The authors would like to acknowledge the contribution of their participants. Your voices are important and your stories are meaningful. Thank you for sharing your stories and struggles with us.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Angela N. Gist-Mackey

Angela N. Gist-Mackey (PhD, University of Missouri) is an Assistant Professor of Organizational Communication at the University of Kansas. Her research explores the relationship between communication, social mobility, and power in organizational contexts.

Debbie S. Dougherty

Debbie S. Dougherty (PhD, University of Nebraska) is a Professor of Organizational Communication at the University of Missouri. Her research explores the relationship between communication and power related to work and organizing.