Gentrified Labour: Meaningful Work After the Middle Class (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781529252934)

What counts as 'good' work under contemporary Western capitalism? As the traditional promise of identity and status by middle-class occupations becomes increasingly difficult to sustain, many workers turn to manual work in search of meaning. The book argues that this represents a mechanism of middle-class reproduction, through which working-class practices and aesthetics are selectively appropriated and transformed by middle-class workers. To describe this transformation, it introduces the concept of gentrified labour, which captures how manual occupations are culturally 'resignified' and workers negotiate tensions between autonomy, recognition and economic insecurity in the pursuit of meaningful work.

Author: Alessandro Gandini
ISBN-10: 1529252938
ISBN-13: 9781529252934
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Language: English
Published: 04/13/2027
Pages: 224
Format: Paperback