Abstract
OBJECTIVE: This paper presents daily routine as a justice-related concern for unemployed people, based on an ethnographic study of discouraged workers.
PARTICIPANTS: Four women and one man who wanted to work but had ceased searching for jobs, and 25 community members whose jobs served the unemployed community, participated in the study.
METHODS: Ethnographic methodology – including participant observation, semi-structured and unstructured interviews, and document reviews – and the Occupational Questionnaire were used to gather data for 10 months in a rural North Carolina town. Data analysis included open and focused coding via the Atlas.ti software as well as participant review of findings and writings.
RESULTS: Routines need to be seen as negotiated, resource-driven products of experience rather than automatic structures for daily living. Scholars and practitioners must acknowledge that the presence or absence of routine not only relates to resource use but also influences unemployed people's occupational possibilities.
CONCLUSIONS: To address unjust expectations about unemployed people's occupational possibilities, scholars must examine the uncertain, negotiated nature of daily routine and its function as a foundation for occupational engagement. Thus, it may be helpful to view routine as both a prerequisite of occupation and a way that existing occupations are organized.