Full Description
Vibes as value explores the relationship between subjectivity, labour and value in the hospitality industry, and thereby how youth, gender, sexuality, race and social class are embodied and made productive in the service economy. It shows that the key product of hospitality labour is 'vibes', or moments of enjoyment and relationality co-produced through exploitative relationships amongst workers and consumers. In the process, the book theorises hospitality as a form of affective labour organised through the normative and structural relations of precarious service work. It shows how identity construction produces value within the highly unequal social terrain of the service economy, and how hospitality labour enacts hierarchies of value extending far beyond the limits of the industry itself.
Contents
Introduction: Labour, identity and value: Young hospitality workers
1 Hospitality as affective labour: Vibes as a product of work
2 Vibes as value: Youthful labour in the hospitality industry
3 Subjects of value: Gender, sexuality, desire and 'diversity'
4 Creating vibes whilst anticipating risk: Gendered violence in hospitality
5 Class, taste, and the politics of gentrification
Conclusion: Labour, life and the politics of affect in hospitality
References