Full Description
We all play games at work - but have you ever wondered how your identity becomes bound up with game playing? This book is about employees in the Higher Education workplace and it provides an interpretation of why people act the way they do at work as an expression of game playing. It offers an insight into how people try to adapt and fit in at work by looking at how value is attached to certain identities through the lens of class and gender. The figure of the 'chav', the 'emotional woman', 'The Grafter', and 'Mrs. Bucket', are explored in detail as representations of what kinds of people are permitted, or not, to fit in at work. These identities are topical, and may even be familiar to readers, but the author's analysis of them challenges why they exist, what function these identities serve at work, and who is able to deploy and inscribe them as part of the games people play at work.
Contents
Chapter 1. Social Games.- Chapter 2. What is Work in the 21st Century?.- Chapter 3. The Marketization of the Higher Education Workplace.- Chapter 4. Playing Games in the HE Workplace.- Chapter 5. Knowledge and Embodiment of Femininity at Work.- Chapter 6. Knowledge and Embodiment of Class at Work.- Chapter 7. (Not) 'Fitting In' and Emotion Work.- Chapter 8. Concluding Thoughts.
