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Explanation of sickness, injury and absence at work frequently turns on “stress” and the individual's ability to “cope” with stress. A critique of the underlying ideology and science of stress and coping discourse (SCD) is presented. An alternative sociological model is put forward in which sickness is reconceptualised as an element in social relations. An intensive study of a medium‐sized pottery firm over two and a half years is presented to support this theory. Three experiments involving women working on the line in the North Staffordshire pottery industry are reported. The findings support the argument that control of time is strongly related to absence and lateness.

The paper attempts to highlight and discuss the limitations of the current discourse around the role of hydrogen‐based energy in a more sustainable future.

The paper draws upon preliminary findings from qualitative fieldwork in three case studies. Focus groups were conducted with members of the public in three different areas of the UK where hydrogen projects are being planned and/or developed. Findings are connected to evidence gathered in other similar studies addressing the relationship between publics and new technologies.

In the case of hydrogen energy and its role in a future economy, questions about safety were present but did not dominate the debate. Participants in our focus groups were not only concerned about the technical and economic aspects of hydrogen technologies, but they also wanted to understand what hydrogen as an energy carrier and fuel would mean for them and in their daily lives; whether it would deliver the promise of realising a better future, for the global environment and the people; and whether it would disrupt people's lifestyles and require a significant change in collective and individual behaviour. Moreover, a frequent issue raised by many people was their ambivalence about what, and whom, to trust in the provision of information about hydrogen.

This research on public attitudes to a future hydrogen economy provides empirical insights about the socio‐cultural contexts in which lay understandings of new, unfamiliar technologies and technological systems are developed, and what issues are raised by members of the general public when an informed debate is encouraged. The research attempts to contribute to the wider debate about public engagement in technological change.

Over the last two decades concern has increased in many countries over health and safety in the workplace. Research into these issues has attracted little attention from the medical profession, unions, government or industry. Sociologists have only recently begun to study the relationship between work and health, but the results so far raise important questions. This special issue reflects the diversity of perspectives and the potential contribution that sociology can make.

This paper examines the accounts of three women, taken from the general population, who will not seek help for their alcohol problems. The narrative construction of their drinking forms a bricolage from the babble of discourses around alcohol that they encounter in their everyday lives. Much of the literature on alcohol & alcohol problems is written from the point of view of subjective experience mapped onto an objective definition which may show that they are not offering a true account of themselves, that they are in denial, or that they are displacing their (real) problem with alcohol onto something else. In this scenario, a cure can only be effected by first making the women understand, & then admit, what their real problem is. It is suggested that the reason these women, & possibly others, do not seek help is precisely because they fear that their own stories will be denied as untrue & that in this process, their own identities & personal accounts will be lost. In the confusion & difficulty they experience in defining the problem, they need an open space where they can explore their drinking & increase their knowledge from the many knowledges available, but free from the constraints & risks that they feel access to these knowledges would inevitably involve.

The idea that worker co‐operatives offer the possibility of increasing productivity without sacrificing workers' safety and health is investigated. Ten worker co‐operatives and four conventional capitalist firms in the Pacific Northwest plywood industry are studied. Co‐operatives have worse productivity and safety records than conventional firms. Lower productivity is due to the unexpected behaviour that emerges in co‐operatives relying heavily on hired labour. Higher levels of accidents are due to different reporting practices arising from different social relations in production. Co‐operatives tend to over‐report their accidents whereas conventional firms under‐report accidents.

The cardinal point to note here is that the development (and unfortunately the likely potential) of area policy is intimately related to the actual character of British social policy. Whilst area policy has been strongly influenced by Pigou's welfare economics, by the rise of scientific management in the delivery of social services (cf Jaques 1976; Whittington and Bellamy 1979), by the accompanying development of operational analyses and by the creation of social economics (see Pigou 1938; Sandford 1977), social policy continues to be enmeshed with the flavours of Benthamite utilitatianism and Social Darwinism (see, above all, the Beveridge Report 1942; Booth 1889; Rowntree 1922, 1946; Webb 1926). Consequently, for their entire history area policies have been coloured by the principles of a national minimum for the many and giving poorer areas a hand up, rather than a hand out. The preceived need to save money (C.S.E. State Apparatus and Expenditure Group 1979; Klein 1974) and the (supposed) ennobling effects of self help have been the twin marching orders for area policy for decades. Private industry is inadvertently called upon to plug the resulting gaps in public provision. The conjunction of a reluctant state and a meandering private sector has fashioned the decaying urban areas of today. Whilst a large degree of party politics and commitment has characterised the general debate over the removal of poverty (Holman 1973; MacGregor 1981), this has for the most part bypassed the ‘marginal’ poorer areas (cf Green forthcoming). Their inhabitants are not usually numerically significant enough to sway general, party policies (cf Boulding 1967) and the problems of most notably the inner cities has been underplayed.