What am I worth? An exploration of unemployed people's experiences of (in)dignity in Denmark

Over the last few decades, people's sense of worth has increasingly become linked to their participation in the labor market. This has made the indignity of unemployment a more complex and pressing matter. Feelings of (in)dignity are shaped by people's past and present experiences with and within labor market institutions, ranging from their encounters with employers to meetings with caseworkers. Drawing from in-depth interviews with 44 unemployed workers and their follow-up video diaries, we examine the subjective experiences of (in)dignity among unemployed people. Using French pragmatic sociology to operationalize the concept of dignity, we show how people's experiences of (in)dignity are tied to three moral repertoires—dignity through rights, work, and meritocracy—as well as to perceptions about being treated as objects.