Working Bodies

Interactive Service Employment and Workplace Identities

Linda McDowell (University of Oxford, UK)

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Hardback

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English

Wiley-Blackwell
02 October 2009

Sociology: work & labour; Labour economics

Series: IJURR Studies in Urban and Social Change Book Series

Through a series of case studies of low-status interactive and embodied servicing work, Working Bodies examines the theoretical and empirical nature of the shift to embodied work in service-dominated economies.

Defines ‘body work’ to include the work by service sector employees on their own bodies and on the bodies of others Sets UK case studies in the context of global patterns of economic change Explores the consequences of growing polarization in the service sector Draws on geography, sociology, anthropology, labour market studies, and feminist scholarship

By: Linda McDowell (University of Oxford UK)
Imprint: Wiley-Blackwell
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 237mm, Width: 160mm, Spine: 23mm
Weight: 562g
ISBN: 9781405159777
ISBN 10: 1405159774
Series: IJURR Studies in Urban and Social Change Book Series
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 02 October 2009
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Further / Higher Education , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

List of Illustrations vi Series Editors’ Preface vii Preface and Acknowledgements viii 1 Service Employment and the Commoditization of the Body 1 Part I Locating Service Work 23 2 The Rise of the Service Economy 25 3 Thinking Through Embodiment: Explaining Interactive Service Employment 49 Part II High-Touch Servicing Work in Private and Public Spaces 77 4 Up Close and Personal: Intimate Work in the Home 79 5 Selling Bodies I: Sex Work 101 6 Selling Bodies II: Masculine Strength and Licensed Violence 129 Part III High-Touch Servicing Work in Specialist Spaces 159 7 Bodies in Sickness and in Health: Care Work and Beauty Work 161 8 Warm Bodies: Doing Deference in Routine Interactive Work 191 9 Conclusions: Bodies in Place 212 References 229 Index 256

Linda McDowell is Professor of Human Geography and Director of the Graduate School of Geography at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of St. John's College, where she is also Director of the Research Centre. Widely published, McDowell's books include Capital Culture: Gender at Work in the City (1997), Redundant Masculinities? Employment Change and White Working Class Youth (2003) and Hard Labour (2005).

Reviews for Working Bodies: Interactive Service Employment and Workplace Identities

Nevertheless, the book is accessibly written, and the variety of themes it explores will ensure it has broad appeal among undergraduates and postgraduates studying social division, gender, service work, labour relations and their relationships. The book also provides academics working in and across the disciplines of sociology and human geography with a good overview of research into interactive work and its implications in contemporary society. (Work, Employment & Society, 25 March 2011)