Waters, SA (2017) Suicide Voices: Testimonies of Trauma in the French workplace. Medical Humanities, 43 (1). pp. 24-29. ISSN 1468-215X
Abstract
Workplace suicide has become an urgent social concern internationally with rising numbers of employees choosing to kill themselves in the face of extreme pressures at work. Yet research on this phenomenon is hampered by fragmentary statistical data and the sheer contentiousness of this issue. This paper presents the preliminary findings of a research project on workplace suicides in France, where there has been a ‘suicide epidemic’ across a wide range of companies. I draw on an analysis of suicide letters linked to 23 suicide cases across three French companies during the period 2005 to 2015. My methodological approach is informed by the work of suicide sociologist, Jack D. Douglas who emphasised the importance of narrative, testimony and voice to our understanding of the causes of suicide. Douglas argued that an analysis of the ‘social meanings’ of suicide should start with a consideration of the motivations attributed to self-killing by suicidal individuals themselves and those close to them. Why does work or conditions of work push some individuals to take their own lives? What can the ‘suicide voices’ articulated in recent testimonies tell us about the causes of workplace suicide? In this paper, I treat suicide letters as a unique mode of testimony that can reveal some of the profound effects of workplace transformations on subjective, intimate and lived experiences of work. By examining French suicide testimonies, my aim is to deepen our understanding of the nature and causes of suicide in today’s globalised workplaces.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2016, The Authors. Published by BMJ Publishing Group. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Medical Humanities. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | suicide; workplace; France; neoliberalism |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Languages Cultures & Societies (Leeds) > French (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Wellcome Trust 110436/Z/15/Z |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 19 Oct 2016 10:02 |
Last Modified: | 19 Jul 2017 01:10 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2016-011013 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | BMJ Publishing Group |
Identification Number: | 10.1136/medhum-2016-011013 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:106146 |