The Library
Negotiating inequality regimes in political work: an institutional ethnography of English local government
Tools
Tools
Tools
Ablett, Elizabeth (2019) Negotiating inequality regimes in political work: an institutional ethnography of English local government. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
|
PDF
WRAP_Theses_Ablett_2019.pdf - Submitted Version - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (1414Kb) | Preview |
Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3492795~S15
Abstract
This thesis examines the work that local political representatives (councillors) do in English local authorities. I draw on a workplace perspective to study political institutions as inequality regimes, where practising politics is understood as a form of work (Acker, 2006). I use Dorothy Smith’s (2005) institutional ethnography (IE) approach to investigate three councils in England.
The landscape of local representation is regarded as one of the most ‘pale, male and stale’ levels of government in UK politics (Allen, 2012; Thrasher et al., 2013). Councillor work is also strange work; councillors’ everyday activities span different regimes and rationalities of work and politics. This strangeness complicates how councillors experience and negotiate inequalities; some people can flourish, others cannot.
I studied three councils over a year: an urban council led by Labour; a post-industrial city council also led by Labour; and a rural county council led by the Conservatives. I interviewed 56 councillors, conducted observations at meetings and events, and shadowed 5 councillors.
My thesis is structured around several important layers: I explore the work councillors do; the inequalities of that work; and how wider regimes of inequality shape and are shaped by councillor work. I focus on the complex ways in which councillors negotiate political and professional discourses and practices, and navigate institutional continuity and change. Beyond the immediate inequalities among councillors, wider inequalities and conditions of work are changing alongside dramatic changes in politics and the representational relationship. This thesis offers a timely contribution to contemporary sociological analyses of changes in politics and work.
Using IE enabled me to interrogate different layers of inequality whilst illuminating the paradoxes and contradictions of political life. In particular, it enabled me to see how institutions that are openly concerned with equality can be the most difficult for minorities to negotiate. My thesis contends that feminist IE enables researchers to evaluate the everyday and ongoing ways in which institutional inequalities are (re)produced, whilst respecting the obdurate nature of many institutions, even as they (and the social actors constituting them) encounter wider social and political changes.
| Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HM Sociology J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe) > JN101 Great Britain |
||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Equality -- Government policy -- Case studies, Equality -- Political aspects, Local government -- England, Ethnosociology | ||||
| Official Date: | April 2019 | ||||
| Dates: |
|
||||
| Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
| Theses Department: | Department of Sociology | ||||
| Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
| Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
| Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Charles, Nickie ; Pereira, Maria do Mar | ||||
| Format of File: | |||||
| Extent: | 236 leaves | ||||
| Language: | eng |
Request changes or add full text files to a record
Repository staff actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
Downloads
Downloads per month over past year
