working_paper35.pdf (176.06 kB)
Forty Years On: Norbert Elias and the Young Worker Project
report
posted on 2010-09-27, 14:22 authored by John Goodwin, Henrietta O'ConnorForty years ago, in 1962, fieldwork began on the research project ‘Adjustment of Young
Workers to Work Situations and Adult Roles’. Using archived materials relating to the
little known Norbert Elias project, this paper has two aims. First, to present some
background information on the research and introduce this aspect of Elias’s work to a
wider audience beyond the few who were aware of the projects existence. Second, to
explore in detail Elias’s contributions to the project by piecing together his ideas and
hypotheses from archived materials. During the early stages of the research, Elias
suggested that the transition from school to work constituted a ‘shock’ experience and
that young people would experience initial difficulties in adjusting to their new role. He
suggested that difficulties would emerge in their relationships with older workers, with
family and with their new income. For the first time this paper presents Elias’s ‘shock’
hypothesis, and his thoughts on school to work transitions. Although later analysis
suggested that, in the main, young people did not experience ‘shock’ on entering work
(see Ashton and Field 1976) it is felt that a full exploration of Elias’s model is
worthwhile as it adds yet a further dimension to the richness and applicability of his
other writing. The paper concludes by reflecting on the limitations of the Elias shock
hypothesis.