Working Bodies: Interactive Service Employment and Workplace Identities

ISBN: 978-1-4051-5978-4

Paperback

284 pages

October 2009, Wiley-Blackwell

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"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)

"Between the covers of this beautifully crafted book is a thoughtful, innovative, and thorough analysis of high-touch interactive service work that draws on numerous case studies and ethnographies, mostly from the United Kingdom, and on the author's own original research. . . . This ambitious book is insightful and informative, and it makes a valuable contribution to the study of work in contemporary capitalist societies". (Canadian Journal of Sociology, 2010)

There are many books on service employment, but very few like this one. In this beautifully written and thoughtful book Linda McDowell shows, in turn, how such employment should not be seen as a new phenomenon, brings the cares, emotions and exploitations that go into servicing the bodies of others (children, consumers, elders, families, buyers of sexual services) close into view, and outlines a complex range of attributes - from skills and capabilities to personal and bodily features - that now count as essential employment requirements. The humdrum comes alive in the hands of this skilled ethnographer of work. Ash Amin, Durham University

Linda McDowell's state-of-the-art discussion demonstrates not only the importance of embodiment for current understandings of work but also the centrality of the workplace for the study of embodiment. Her analysis of high-touch interactive service work is comprehensive, concise and compelling, drawing on a wealth of case studies as well as her own original research. This timely volume raises a host of fascinating issues and will be an invaluable resource across the social sciences.
Miriam Glucksmann, University of Essex