(Dis)Placing Trust: the Long-term Effects of Job Displacement on Generalized Trust over the Adult Lifecourse

• In Event: 161 - Section on Organizations, Occupation and Work Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 15. Job Insecurity and Temporary Employment II

Abstract

The adoption of ‘flexible modes of production’ across much of the developed world has been theoretically posited to be a substantial driver of declining levels of social capital and generalized trust at the macro-scale. A key facet of ‘flexible modes of production’ believed particularly harmful for social capital is increasing rates of job displacement (e.g. involuntary job loss from redundancy, downsizing, restructuring) and job insecurity. However, in spite of the posited association, very little has research has investigated if, how and why job displacement affects social capital. This paper explores how experiences of job displacement can affect individuals' tendencies to (dis)trust over the adult lifecourse, using two-waves of the Great Britain National Child Development Study cohort data. Applying lagged dependent variable models, we find that job displacements, between the ages of 33 and 50, appear to significantly scar generalized trust, with depressed trust observable at least nine years after the event occurred. In fact, even after individuals return to employment, distrust remains higher amongst those having experienced displacement. However, the severity of the effect appears dependent on the value an individual places on work: the more central employment is to individuals’ lives the stronger the negative effect of displacement. A range of mediators, such as physical health, mental well-being, and personal efficacy fail to account for the effect. This paper keenly demonstrates the importance of understanding how experiences within the economic sphere can spillover into the wider social sphere, both at micro- and macro-levels.

Author

• James Laurence, Manchester University