2009 Housing and Theory Symposium State Library 5-6 March The role of the home in adjustment to retrenchment Hans Pieters PHD Candidate Flinders Institute.

2009 Housing and Theory SymposiumState Library

5-6 March

The role of the home in adjustment to retrenchment

Hans Pieters

PHD Candidate

Flinders Institute for Housing, Urban and Regional Research

Institute for Social Research

Swinburne Institute of Technology

&

The Centre for Design RMIT

• They got married early, never had no moneyThen when he got laid off they really hit the skidsHe started up his drinking, then they started fightingHe took it pretty badly, she took both the kidsShe said: "I'm not standing by, to watch you slowly dieSo watch me walking, out the door, out the door, out the door"She said, "Shove it, Jack, I'm walking out the ###### door"

“To her door”: Paul Kelly 1987

• “Coping with unemployment, like all social behaviour and experience, comes into existence in a process of continuous renegotiation over time involving fundamental issues of power and agency at the intersection of the individual, broader family, social, and community settings with powerful social institutional arrangements”

Source: Fryer and Fagan 1993:119

How to reconcile

Putnam (1993:156) “The modern home is inconceivable except as a terminal (within networks), affording the benefits of but also providing legitimating support to a vast infrastructure facilitating flows of energy, goods, people and messages”

Douglas (1991) home, anthropologically, as coordination/moral community

Kaika (2004)– “how the modern house becomes the modern home ( an anonymous protected utopia ) through a dual practice of exclusion: though ostracizing the undesired elements of the social as well as the undesired elements of natural elements and processes”

Kearns et al (2000) Access to psycho-social benefits of home more influenced by quality of neighbourhood and house than by tenure

Dovey (2005:367) on Giddens “Giddens suggests that globalization and modernity have transformed the very tissue of everyday experience – the home is infused to its core with local/global tensions. This does not signal a loss of “home” rather it is the end of the closed local home-place where singular identities are linked to semantic and spatial enclosure”

Contents

• Theoretical framework

• Research question

• Research design

• Methodology

• Findings

• Discussion

Theoretical framework

• Wanted to capture interplay of time, place, identity, agency and structure

• Clapham’s Housing Pathways Analytical framework as entry point• Need to theorize adjustment to retrenchment and the home

Integration model (Moos and Schaefer)Stress model (Waters 2000)Narratives of job loss (Ezzy 2001)Levels of meaning of home (Gurney and Means 1993)Experienced and imagined home (Watkins and Hosier 2005)Ontological narratives (Winstanley and Thorns 2002)

• Home/work linkagesInterdependency of home and work (Hanson and Pratt, 1986)Place embeddedness of coordination of home and work (Jarvis 1999)Macro level – Housing and labour market interactions (eg Oswald

1996)

Coping with unemployment

Source:Waters 2000

Source: Watkins and Hosier 2005

Research question

• How does the home mediate the process of adjustment to retrenchment?

Research design

• Longitudinal

• Mixed methods – quantitative and qualitative

• Triangulation – getting the picture through aggregate data on behaviour, limited subjective experience and meanings, and narratives

Methodology

• Workers retrenched from Mitsubishi Motors in Adelaide from 2004; 700 voluntary, 600 involuntary (not to be confused with latest round of sackings in 2008 when plant closed)

• Three waves of survey data from initially 372 workers – health, housing, labour market, social capital; quantitative and qualitative; approx one year apart

• Two waves of in depth but very structured interviews with subset of 38 workers; approx one year apart

• Three waves of survey data from control group

Current Employment Situation

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative

Percent Self Employed 31 8.3 10.6 10.6 Working Full Time for Pay 89 23.9 30.5 41.1 Working Part Time for Pay 28 7.5 9.6 50.7 Unemployed, Looking for Work 68 18.3 23.3 74.0

Retired 21 5.6 7.2 81.2 Full Time Student 5 1.3 1.7 82.9 Household Duties, Not Looking for Work 9 2.4 3.1 86.0

Not Working Because of a Disability 16 4.3 5.5 91.4

Other 25 6.7 8.6 100.0

Valid

Total 292 78.5 100.0 Missing System 80 21.5 Total 372 100.0

Stage 1

Stage 3 Which of the following best describes your current situation

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative

Percent Self-employed 34 11.3 11.3 11.3 Employed full time 113 37.7 37.7 49.0 Employed part time 17 5.7 5.7 54.7 Employed as a casual worker 58 19.3 19.3 74.0

Working without pay in a family or other business 1 .3 .3 74.3

Unemployed looking for work 16 5.3 5.3 79.7

Retired 35 11.7 11.7 91.3 Full time student 4 1.3 1.3 92.7 Household duties not looking for work 5 1.7 1.7 94.3

Not working becasue of a disability 15 5.0 5.0 99.3

Carer's duties not looking for work 2 .7 .7 100.0

Valid

Total 300 100.0 100.0

Stage 1 Importance of home

How Important is Your Home to You?

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative

Percent Not at All Important 8 2.2 2.2 2.2 Somewhat Important 8 2.2 2.2 4.3 Mildly Important 14 3.8 3.8 8.1 Important 17 4.6 4.6 12.7 Decidely Important 28 7.5 7.5 20.2 Of Major Importance 42 11.3 11.3 31.5 Very Important 254 68.3 68.5 100.0

Valid

Total 371 99.7 100.0 Missing System 1 .3 Total 372 100.0

Importance of home and tenure

Ranks

Tenure N Mean Rank Outright Owner/Joint Owner 149 203.44

Mortgagor 160 191.53 Renting from SAHT 7 160.07 Renting Privately 40 111.46 Living With Partner/Parents Paying Off Mortgage

7 130.86

Other 6 135.50

How Important is Your Home to You?

Total 369

Stage 1 Relationship between importance of home and current employment situation

Ranks

Current Employment Situation N Mean Rank Self Employed 31 152.23 Working Full Time for Pay 89 128.63 Working Part Time for Pay 28 150.41 Unemployed, Looking for Work 65 148.52

Retired 21 166.69 Full Time Student 5 166.50 Household Duties, Not Looking for Work 9 171.94

Not Working Because of a Disability 16 142.78

Other 25 148.32

How Important is Your Home to You?

Total 289

Outright Owner

Paying Off a

Mortgage

Renting From the SA

Housing Trust

Renting Privately

Living with Parents/Partner

Who Own Other Total Self Employed 12 21 0 3 2 0 38 10.2% 15% 0 7.3% 40% 0 12.1% Employed Full Time 33 46 3 21 2 2 107 27.9% 32.9% 75% 51.2% 40% 33.3% 34.1% Employed Part Time 6 3 0 1 0 0 10 5.1% 2.1% 0 2.4% 0 0 3.2% Employed as a Casual Worker 21 30 0 9 0 1 61 17.8% 21.4% 0 21.9% 0 16.7% 19.4% Working Without Pay in a Family or Other Business 0 1 0 1 0 0 2 0 0.7% 0 2.4% 0 0 0.6% Unemployed Looking for Work 19 18 1 3 0 1 42 16.1% 12.9% 25% 7.3% 0 16.7% 13.4% Retired 14 11 0 2 1 1 29 11.9% 7.9% 0 4.9% 20% 16.7% 9.2% Full Time Student 1 4 0 1 0 0 6 0.8% 2.9% 0 2.4% 0 0 1.9% Household Duties Not Looking for Work 3 1 0 0 0 0 4 2.5% 0.7% 0 0 0 0 1.3% Not Working Because of Disability 9 4 0 0 0 0 13 7.6% 2.9% 0 0 0 0 4.1% Carers Duties - Not Looking for Work 0 1 0 0 0 1 2 0 0.7% 0 0 0 16.7% 0.6% Total 118 140 4 41 5 6 314 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%

Stage 2 Relationship between tenure and employment status

Source: Beer,2008

Discourse Words used by respondents

Emotions Family, Children, Safety, We are very secure here  

Back region(Haven)

Privacy, Come back to, Go home to, Haven

Negative/Instrumental Lonely, Stopping off point, Don’t like being in this home, Two dogs were killed due to street traffic

Relaxation Relax, Take it easy, Unwind

Comfort Something your comfortable with; Comfortable

Safety Feel safe

Ownership This is your home, We have the house build, Somewhere that was our own, its mine, Its all paid, All of the mortgage is paid

Personalisation Because I do the garden, Its just ours, everything is ours; Make changes that suit yourself,

Autonomy(Autonomy)

When I want to, Where I want to; Shut the door, The world stays outside, Do my own thing

Front-region(Status)

No problems with neighbours, Invite over friends, Will never leave the area, Never move to out of South, Area is good

What you make it What you make of it

Other Hub, base, in the middle,

Source: based on Gurney 1996

Responses to Q. “..what does home mean to you”

Examples of in depth interview questions

• Does the expression “Great Australian Dream” have any personal significance

• Are memories of home important

• Would you ever leave this place

• Best and worst things about living here

Narratives

• 6 elements.– Introduction. – What and where is home and how is it made? – What did it mean to work for MMAL?. – Personal and household impacts of retrenchment –

positive and negative – Coping strategies and tactics. – The future: This final element engages the hopes and

plans of the respondents as they consolidate their post retrenchment situation

Discussion

• Challenges of working in and across disciplines