Racialising emotional labour and emotionalising racialised labour: anger, fear and shame in social welfare

Citation
Y. Gunaratnam et G. Lewis, Racialising emotional labour and emotionalising racialised labour: anger, fear and shame in social welfare, J SOC WOR P, 15(2), 2001, pp. 131-148
Citations number
42
Language
INGLESE
art.tipo
Article
Categorie Soggetti
Social Work & Social Policy
Journal title
JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE
ISSN journal
0265-0533 → ACNP
Volume
15
Issue
2
Year of publication
2001
Pages
131 - 148
Database
ISI
SICI code
0265-0533(200111)15:2<131:RELAER>2.0.ZU;2-Z
Abstract
This paper brings together the empirical work of Yasmin Gunaratnam with hos pice social workers and that of Gail Lewis with local authority social work ers. It uses a conceptually expanded notion of 'emotional labour' to explor e and theorise links between different forms of emotion management and raci alised subject positions and practices in social care for both those catego rised as 'ethnic minorities' and as 'white'. The analytic framework draws u pon the political scholarship of Audre Lorde and Thandeka and the psychoana lytic work of Melanie Klein to explore talk about the production of anger, fear and shame. A common focus in the writing of these different authors is the self/other relation and the attention given to personal, interpersonal , inter-group and intra-group dynamics. The paper argues that the irrationa l and unconscious aspects of racial dynamics cannot simply be countered by appeals to the rational. There is a need to recognise and integrate rather than 'split' positive and negative emotions about the self and 'others'. Su ch integration is seen as a source of internal strength and psychic health making for the possibility of caring and constructive relationships in soci al care organisations through which the complexities of difference can be r ecognised and valued.