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
Cuprins
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
Despre autor
Linda Mc Dowell 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, Mc Dowell’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).