Sick Work : Exhaustion, Labor, and Invisible Illness / Emily Lim Rogers.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rogers, Emily Lim, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Chronic fatigue syndrome--United States--History.

Chronic fatigue syndrome.

Myalgic encephalomyelitis--Social aspects--United States.

Myalgic encephalomyelitis.

Chronic diseases--Political aspects--United States.

Chronic diseases.

Chronic diseases--Social aspects--United States.

Disability studies--United States.

Disability studies.

Medical anthropology--United States.

Medical anthropology.

Discrimination in medical care--United States.

Discrimination in medical care.

Race discrimination--Health aspects--United States.

Race discrimination.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Durham Duke University Press, [2026]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

In Sick Work , Emily Lim Rogers shows the unpaid labor it takes to be recognized as sick in the United States. Through a historical and ethnographic account of myalgic encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS)-a disease defined by disproportionate exhaustion after any form of exertion, which has no cure or treatment-she reveals how changing formations of labor decide what counts as disability and what does not. Sickness, she writes, is not work's opposite. Rather, the frequent dismissal of their disease leaves people with ME/CFS to do their own labor of disease advocacy, or "sick work," even as their symptoms prevent many from working paid jobs. Rogers presents a history of the discursive construction of chronic fatigue and demonstrates its development alongside capitalism since the dawn of industrial management science in the late nineteenth century. These histories, she argues, echo through to the present day, shaping the denial of me/cfs and the stigma that surrounds it. Examining the everyday lives of people with ME/CFS and their activist movements, Sick Work describes how they swim upstream against strong tides of disbelief and demands a radical transformation of how work is defined and valued.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Prologue: The Ill Observer

Introduction

1. Side Affects

2. Proximate Causes

3. Energy Deficits

4. The Living Dead

Postscript: Unrest

Acknowledgments

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed August 05 2026)

ISBN:

1-4780-6262-2