| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
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Chapter 3 describes the theoretical approach that was taken in this study: social constructionism. This theoretical frame focuses on the constructedness of discourse but also recognises that discourses are about something. In other words, there is a concreteness to (the experience of ) contingent work and health. I also describe the methods of data analysis: a combination of interpretive qualitative approaches including narrative analysis, constructivist grounded theory methods, and the abductive analytic technique. The latter is a kind of ‘thought operation’, or a type of inference that is used to move from analytic descriptions or themes that are grounded in the data to a deeper understanding and a more theoretically based explanation of the phenomenon under study. That is to say, it is a process of finding useful explanations for what is observed in the data. I also describe the processes of recruitment and sampling as well as data generation and management, and I discuss some relevant ethical considerations.
Chapters 4 and 5 present the results of the empirical research. These chapters describe the discourses that reflect the common experiences and perceptions of the workers in this study. They viewed contingent work alternatively as an advantage or a disadvantage (as being in their interests or against their interests). Chapter 4 lays out the features of the discourse of disadvantage, and chapter 5 outlines the constituent elements of the discourse of advantage.
Chapter 6 discusses and explains the coexistence of these disparate discourses in the discursive repertoire of the workers. Starting from the theoretical premise that discourse is a form of social action and situating this analysis in the context of neoliberalism and citizenship, I suggest that (a) these discourses cast the workers as different kinds of citizens and (b) these discourses are reflective of the neoliberal sociopolitical and economic society that the workers inhabit.