Service Work

Critical Perspectives

By: Cameron MacDonald (Editor), Marek Korczynski (Editor)

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Paperback | 20 August 2008 | Edition Number 1

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218 Pages

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23.4 x 15.6 x 1.2

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In an important sense contemporary economies are predominantly service economies. Critical social analysis, which has historically developed in relation to manufacturing settings, is beginning to address this central importance of service work. For instance, authors such as George Ritzer and Alan Bryman have developed a general approach to societies through root metaphors based in service settings (McDonaldization and Disneyization respectively). Other authors have applied particular traditions of critical social theory to the specificities of service work. This is an area of considerable and burgeoning intellectual energy and interest. At present, however, there is no one volume which brings together these different critical perspectives on services work. There is no volume which brings together these different critical perspectives and which reflects on their collective contribution, their compatibilities and their differences.

Industry Reviews

Service work is the future and the future is here. Our concepts for understanding work, however, are still deeply tied to the industrial workplace. Service Work moves us decisively toward our future by its keen development of such concepts as authenticity, emotion work, constructed realities (think "Disney Princesses"), the service triangle and the control and exploitation of consumers. These are the concepts of the future for the study of work. - Randy Hodson, Editor, American Sociological Review

This collection sparkles with insight and dispute - exactly what a critical text should do. Top-flight authors bring fresh light to the now all-pervasive, grassroots, service economy. It is where frontliners are employed to 'serve' with a literal or virtual smile; to be concerned or caring; to simultaneously please both employer and customer. With different tools, the contributors dig beneath the surface of this world to reveal its assumptions, tensions, contradictions and possibilities. This is a key book, not just for critical organizational theorists, but for any student who feels curious or uneasy about the seemingly unstoppable growth of service work.- Stephen Fineman, School of Management, University of Bath

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