Open AccessCOMMENTARY: RSI AS A SOCIAL PROCESS
Author(s) -
Willis Evan
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
community health studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.946
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1753-6405
pISSN - 0314-9021
DOI - 10.1111/j.1753-6405.1986.tb00102.x
Subject(s) - mediation , process (computing) , context (archaeology) , industrial relations , dehumanization , phenomenon , resistance (ecology) , work (physics) , psychology , sociology , political science , epistemology , social science , engineering , law , computer science , history , mechanical engineering , ecology , philosophy , archaeology , biology , operating system
Since 1982 there has been an ‘epidemic’ of repetitive strain injuries in the workplace. Its recency, widespread incidence and threat to industry make RSI an important medico‐social phenomenon of the 1980's. This paper considers RSI in a process framework, one with important sociopolitical dimensions. Drawing upon the parallel historical example of the occupational injury of miners' nystagmus, two aspects of the sociopolitical process are developed. The first is the mediation of the social relations of work by RSI. Using labour process theory it is argued that the injury must be understood in the context of the gradual dehumanisation of work, as involving a form of resistance which is transforming the industrial relations of occupational health and safety. The second aspect to be addressed is the sociology of medical knowledge about RSI; the role of medical practitioners as arbiters in the mediation of social relations and the location of medical knowledge about RSI in the medico‐legal process. An attempt is made to account for the controversial nature of the medical knowledge about RSI. Finally, some implications of RSI for future industrial relations are considered.