Locality and habitus: the origins of sickness absence practices

This article aims to understanding the differences observed in the sickness absence practices of three municipal work organisations. Sickness absence figures were contextualised with a two-level analysis. The working communities were studied with the material collected for the study from documents, interviews, and a postal questionnaire survey on psychosocial working conditions. At the locality level the quality and quantity of economic, social, and cultural capitals were assessed. On the basis of this material, community diagnoses of the three localities are presented. The relationship of the way of life and being ill in the locality to the sickness absences among the employees of the municipality is discussed using the concepts of ‘field’, ‘habitus’, ‘practice’ and ‘capital’ as presented by Bourdieu. Sickness absence practices seem to be connected to the relative dominance of social classes in the locality. We conclude that the sickness absence practice of the municipal working community is an expression of the sickness absence habitus which is deeply rooted in the social history of the locality and in the health-related behaviour of the residents. In being not too structuralistic and not too relativistic, Bourdieu’s theory helps us to understand the reality of the sickness absences; they can only be influenced marginally and temporarily by simple intervention measures in the work-places. More lasting changes in the level of sickness absences would require profound changes in the working community and—ultimately—in the whole locality.