Published
Apr 30, 2024Page count
250 pagesISBN
978-1447359432Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Policy PressPublished
Apr 30, 2024Page count
250 pagesISBN
978-1447359425Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Policy PressPublished
Apr 30, 2024Page count
250 pagesISBN
978-1447359449Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Policy PressPublished
Apr 30, 2024Page count
250 pagesISBN
978-1447359449Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Policy Press
The Rise of Mental Vulnerability at Work
Since the 1960s, a major mental health crisis has emerged among Western working populations. By analysing the development of various occupational cultures and using extensive data sources, this book captures the history of mental vulnerability in working life.
Through a study spanning several decades, the book develops a new understanding of how mental vulnerability has evolved through changes to our working lives and socio-cultural being. It shows how our current knowledge about work, disability and the psyche is influenced by our time and provides intertwining conceptual frameworks and alternatives to current canonised knowledge about mental health in working life.
“This highly original text provides an exciting new way of understanding the changing nature of mental health in modern society. It is both theoretically sophisticated and empirically grounded and expands our grasp of the changing nature of work in western society.” Michael Murray, Keele University
"In a society sensitized to mental vulnerability, Ari Väänänen’s cultural-historical perspective on vulnerability at work is a very helpful guide to the complexities of the matter. Highly recommended!" Svend Brinkmann, Aalborg University
Ari Väänänen is Research Professor at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health. He has worked in various research units in several countries and as Vising Professor at the University of Kent.
Preface
1. Background: mental health crisis in the labour market
2. Mental vulnerability and the moving target of mental health
3. The vulnerability of work
4. The vulnerability of cultural existence
5. Mental vulnerability in the historical context
6. The change in the understanding of occupational health
7. The historical pathways of mental vulnerability in different occupations
8. The current dynamics of vulnerability at work
9. Mental vulnerability as a social practice
10. The temporal nature of mental health at work
Appendix: Original publications of the research group
