Rachel Smith

Living “Out of the Loop”: Unemployment in the Context ofLong-Term Illness ABSTRACT: This article is part of the special issue “Laboring from Ex- Centric Sites: Disability, Chronicity and Work” (title of SI; AWR July2025; 46(1)) edited by Giorgio Brocco and Stefanie Mauksch. This paper examines the experiences of work and unemploymentamong residents of an East London borough living with multiple long-term health conditions. Through ethnographic research,we explore the psychopolitics of unemployment in an urban setting, focusing on the cyclical relationship between (un)employment and (ill-)health. Our findings show the double bind participants often experience regarding work: while they desired employment and could only imagine a fulfilling life through work, they found it impossible to remain in most workplaces they had experienced, as these environments worsened their health conditions. This contradiction created a sense of existential stuckness among our study participants. Additionally, our analysis highlights the moral and bureaucratic challenges involved in managing unemployment. The benefit assessment process, combined with social isolation, often reinforced a chronic identity among long-term unemployed participants, leading to a diminished sense of their own capabilities. By theorizing the seduction of labor in contemporary societies as a distinct form of psychopolitics inherent to neoliberal governance, we aim to highlight the troubling pressure governments place on individuals to work, even under conditions of long-term illness.

In May, the UK govt announced the biggest overhaul to the welfare system in over a decade.

A million people could lose disability benefits under the proposed changes.

Why does it matter? anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

@qmul-wiph.bsky.social @anthropologia.bsky.social

This article in our new special issue from van Blarikom, Fudge & Swinglehurst at @qmulprimarycare.bsky.social‬ examines the psychopolitics of unemployment among residents of an East London borough living with multiple long-term health conditions. anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Your silence is loud | OtherwiseMag 'These plants reminded me of my connection to the land - a way of knowing that lives in practice, in care, in a language far more honest than the one spoken in the world of German academia' - Samir Ha...

Samir Harb @samirharb.bsky.social on living through a genocide in the silence of German academia @otherwisemag.bsky.social www.otherwisemag.com

This article is about equine therapy for people with documented disabilities & how it impacts the people who run the program but the analysis is relevant for anyone whose work involves trying to make the world better under capitalism

@anthropologyofwork.bsky.social

Someone on here compared AI produced material as "digital asbestos " which in a few decades' time we will have to work out how to eradicate from the fabric of research.

In "Breathing Free: Chronicity, Pollution, and Imaginaries of Good Work in India" Ipshita Ghosh examines how Delhi's air pollution crisis and its compounding impacts on residents' health disrupt normative ideas of work, generating a new hierarchy of values that centers the ability to breathe freely.

UK scholars 👇

"the culmination of six years of advocacy and diplomatic manoeuvring which started with a group of Pacific university students. . . Iwasawa said states had clear obligations under international law, and that countries - and, by extension, individuals and companies ...are required to curb emissions."

Grad students working on labor 👀 Check out this call for submissions for the @saw-anthroofwork.bsky.social Eric Wolf Prize. The recipient will receive a $250 and an invitation to develop the paper for publication in AWR @anthropologyofwork.bsky.social saw.americananthro.org/pub/2025-wol...

Book Review: Working the Fabric Book review of Joanna Nascimento's Working the Fabric: Resourcefulness, Belonging and Island Life in Scotland’s Harris Tweed Industry (2023)

My review of Joanna Nascimento's ethnography, Working the Fabric, is now out in @saw-anthroofwork.bsky.social Exertions. For those interested in the people and processes that make one of fashion's most iconic textiles, Harris Tweed, this book is for you! saw.americananthro.org/pub/li5yuag7...

2025 Eric R. Wolf Prize: Call for Submissions The Prize honors excellence in graduate student research. We especially invite papers that integrate political economy and bold political action into the analysis of social life.

Graduate students, the Society for the Anthropology of Work (SAW) invites you to submit your scholarly work to the Eric Wolfe Prize. Submissions are due on September 1, 2025.

Please email your submissions to (lirani+wolf@ucsd.edu).

See the cfp below!
saw.americananthro.org/pub/2025-wol...

‘We were heard’: the Pacific students who took their climate fight to the ICJ – and won In a packed court thousands of kilometres from home, Cynthia Houniuhi saw years of work come to fruition with the landmark ICJ opinion on climate harm

"t felt like a wild dream – this idea that we could go to the ICJ. But we thought, ‘Why not?’ There was youthful ambition and energy, and surprisingly – with support from across the world – we got here." Ralph Regenvanu @rregenvanu.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

‘All those posh apartments. It’s a playground for the rich’: is Manchester turning into London? £6 a pint, £199 a month for gym membership, £1,200 to rent a studio flat? The Guardian’s former North of England editor asks if the city she’s worked in for 12 years is changing for the better – or wo...

Well worth a read. I left Manchester in August 2018. When I returned three years later, I was shocked to see the city had a skyline!
The bit on influencers or OnlyFans creators is both hilarious and dystopian.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

The Society for the Anthropology of Work and the Anthropology of Work Review invite applications to join the SAW Community of Writing Fellows, a new 8-month writing mentorship program running from September 2025 to April 2026. We seek six early-career scholars and graduate students working on topics related to labour and work from anthropological perspectives and who seek to develop submissions for the Anthropology of Work Review. Our initiative is designed to especially support those who may not have robust mentorship supports in their home institutions, and we strongly welcome applicants from equity-deserving groups. You’ll engage in… Monthly writing group meetings and peer feedback A developmental editing workshop with Ideas on Fire The opportunity to meet and learn from the AWR editorial collective A community of practice (CoP) approach to writing focused on collaborative, supportive, and rigorous writing development Eligibility: Current graduate student or early-career scholar (within five years of PhD) Working on an article-length research manuscript related to the anthropology of work Committed to attending monthly meetings and engaging in one peer review between meetings To apply, please submit a short application of max 500 words describing (1) your project and its fit with the anthropology of work, (2) your goals for writing and publishing, and (3) a brief note about your writing and mentoring needs. Applications due August 15, 2025 to Jennifer Shaw , jeshaw@tru.ca

Applications open for our 8-month early career writing mentorship program! Society for the Anthropology of Work @saw-anthroofwork.bsky.social and Anthropology of Work Review @anthropologyofwork.bsky.social invite applications to the SAW Community of Writing Fellows. Deadline 15 August.

Anthropology of Work Review | AAA Labor Studies Journal | Wiley Online Library This article is part of the special issue “Laboring from Ex-Centric Sites: Disability, Chronicity and Work”, Anthropology of Work Review 46(1), July 2025, edited by Giorgio Brocco and Stefanie Mauksc....

In AWR's latest special issue, @anikakoenig.bsky.social and Caroline Meier zu Biesen show how the invisible unpaid labor of activism is vital to public understandings and lived experiences of endometriosis, and chronic illness more broadly anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

so much love to the law students at USP in Vanuatu and all the Pacific climate warriors.

Healthy environment a human right, UN court says in landmark climate ruling Court’s decision expected to be used in future litigation and to support political negotiations by vulnerable states

"Advisory opinions are technically non-binding but are considered authoritative because they summarise existing law...They are expected to be used in future litigation and to bolster political negotiations."

After a long campaign spearheaded by Pacific Islanders

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The world's highest court declares states have a legal obligation to tackle climate change The opinion of the International Court of Justice is seen by some as a turning point in international climate law, with judges finding that states affected by global warming could be eligible for repa...

"...major polluters, past and present, cannot continue to act with impunity and treat developing countries as sacrifice zones to further feed corporate greed." Vanuatu's special envoy on climate change, Ralph Regenvanu
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07...

‘Historic’ ruling on climate change by World Court: What to expect The ICJ is set to decide the future course of climate accountability in a landmark legal case brought by Vanuatu.

Not sure how this will go but either way it’s a big deal for climate accountability

Vanuatu’s Ralph Regenvanu should also probably get more recognition for the work he’s done on climate at the global level, including backing the law students on this case

www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/...

The Fight for Climate Justice at the World Court Vanuatu, a South Pacific island nation on the frontlines of the climate crisis, is fighting for climate justice at the world’s highest court.

🌍 Today, the ICJ issues its opinion on states’ legal duties in the climate crisis.

Read PI Council member Julian Aguon — a lawyer in the case — tell the story of rising island youth, Vanuatu 🇻🇺 and the movement for climate justice in Rolling Stone.

Wiley, all year: We're soon migrating to REX, aren't you ✨excited✨?
Me: 😒
Wiley: We've migrated your editorial account!
Me: This is an author portal.
Wiley: We've ✨now✨ migrated your editorial account!
Me: This is a reviewer portal.
Wiley: We will ✨soon✨ migrate your editorial account.
Me: 🤦‍♀️

If you are interested or know anyone who might be this is going to be a great program!

Our latest Special Issue includes a beautifully reflexive article by @mauraf.bsky.social 'Work Cannot Save Us but Let's Still Try: Labor, Utopias, and Futurity at an Equine Therapy Farm' which argues that "workspaces cannot save us, in terms of any liberatory potential under capitalism."

Manchester’s Royal Exchange rooted in slavery and colonialism, research reveals Links to enslavement, exploitation and opium make it ‘one of most important locations in history of global capitalism’

www.theguardian.com/news/2025/ju...

The Society for the Anthropology of Work and the Anthropology of Work Review invite applications to join the SAW Community of Writing Fellows, a new 8-month writing mentorship program running from September 2025 to April 2026. We seek six early-career scholars and graduate students working on topics related to labor and work from anthropological perspectives and who seek to develop submissions for the Anthropology of Work Review. Our initiative is designed to especially support those who may not have robust mentorship supports in their home institutions, and we strongly welcome applicants from equity-deserving groups. You’ll engage in… • Monthly writing group meetings and peer feedback • A developmental editing workshop with Ideas on Fire [ideasonfire.net] • The opportunity to meet and learn from the AWR editorial collective • A community of practice (CoP) approach to writing focused on collaborative, supportive, and rigorous writing development Eligibility: • Current graduate student or early-career scholar (within five years of PhD) • Working on an article-length research manuscript related to the anthropology of work • Committed to attending monthly meetings and engaging in one peer review between meetings To apply, please submit a short application of max 500 words describing (1) your project and its fit with the anthropology of work, (2) your goals for writing and publishing, and (3) a brief note about your writing and mentoring needs. Applications due August 15, 2025 to Jennifer Shaw, SAW Mentorship Coordinator, at jeshaw@tru.ca. Questions are also welcome!

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS!

Society for the Anthropology of Work and Anthropology of Work Review invite applications to the SAW Community of Writing Fellows, a 8-month writing mentorship program running September 2025 to April 2026. Applications due August 15, 2025 to Jennifer Shaw at jeshaw@tru.ca.

Anthropology of Work Review | AAA Labor Studies Journal | Wiley Online Library This article is part of the special issue Laboring from Ex-Centric Sites: Disability, Chronicity and Work, Anthropology of Work Review 46(1), July 2025, edited by Giorgio Brocco and Stefanie Mauksch.....

“Bodyworkability describes the medico-legal substitution of body parts with quantified units of standardized ability to work”

Check out Elif Irem Az’s wonderful article “Bodyworkability” in @anthropologyofwork.bsky.social

#anthropology

anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

I am delighted to share that Caroline Meier zu Biesen's and my article on #endometriosis activism and/as work is out now in Anthropology of Work Review (Open Access). It is part of a Special Issue on Disability, Chronicity, and Work by Giorgio Brocco and Stefanie Mauksch: doi.org/10.1111/awr....

When I pointed out King’s will lose 90% of its AHRC student-led places under the new scheme, I got piled on by the AHRC Chair claiming I was wrong and scaremongering.

It wasn’t quite 90%.

This year King’s students got 27 AHRC student-led scholarships.

Next year they’re giving us 3.

So 89% then.

Anthropology of Work Review | AAA Labor Studies Journal | Wiley Online Library This article is part of the special issue Laboring from Ex-Centric Sites: Disability, Chronicity and Work, Anthropology of Work Review 46(1), July 2025, edited by Giorgio Brocco and Stefanie Mauksch....

New article!

Many of us who sell our labor power sometimes struggle with diminished “bodyworkability”—from overwork, accidents, toxicity, or disasters—but what happens when that condition is assessed for medical recognition as a disability?

@saw-anthroofwork.bsky.social
@harvardcmes.bsky.social