The new discomforts of precarious workers: Wardrobe matter, insecurity and the temporality of calibration in dress work

Berg, Marguerite van den; Vonk, Laura

doi:10.1177/0038026119892402

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 28 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Second, cultural fit – partly hinged on aesthetic performance – is important for feeling confident and comfortable (cf. Van den Berg and Vonk, 2020) and for ‘getting on’ within the organisation (Friedman and Laurison, 2019). Hence, aesthetic feedback and judgements from co-workers can cause feelings of unease and being ‘out of place’, but can also function as pedagogical encounters that can help workers achieve ‘clothing competence’ (Hansen, 2005).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peer Feedback in Aesthetic Labour: Forms, Logics and Responses

Vonk

2020

Cultural Sociology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Research on aesthetic labour has largely been confined to studying practices and experiences of managerial control and self-discipline. However, co-workers also have an impact on the experiences and practices of aesthetic labour. This article explores peer feedback regarding personal aesthetics in work situations without clear organisational aesthetic guidelines. Testimonies of experiences of peer feedback from 28 qualitative wardrobe interviews with ‘frontstage’ and creative workers in insecure employment positions show that peer feedback (1) is often ambiguous both in content and form; (2) can contain both a commercial logic and logics of ‘belonging’; and (3) is not only accepted, but in many cases is seen as legitimate and taken very seriously by workers on the receiving end. This study illustrates how informal processes of control and distinction concerning personal appearance intensify and complicate experiences of aesthetic labour as the interplay between market logics and judgements of taste has the potential to act as a reinforcement of insecurities and inequalities

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peer Feedback in Aesthetic Labour: Forms, Logics and Responses

Vonk

2020

Cultural Sociology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The importance of temporality in sociology has been illustrated by recent case studies ranging from, but by no means limited to, migration (Bass & Yeoh, 2019; Ibanez Tirado, 2018), transnational family and long-distance marriages (Acedera & Yeoh, 2019), social class and labour (Seo, 2019), Queer studies (Bass, 2019) and precarious work (Van den Berg & Vonk, 2019). This body of research captures the importance of recognising the ways in which time is constantly negotiated in the lives of people through different, but interdependent, temporal strategies and mobilities.…”

Section: Temporality Social Movements and Relational Sociologymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Safe Standing movement: Vectors in the post-Hillsborough timescape of English football

Turner

2021

The Sociological Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article draws upon archival and fieldwork research to analyse the longer-term impact which all-seated stadia have had on football supporters’ consumption of the game in England. Consequently, 26 supporter activists identified as important in building a rich social history of activism were interviewed as a type of activist life story. By analysing empirical snapshots of a 30-year social movement against all-seated stadia, the article cross-pollinates ideas from sociology and social movement studies on eventful protests and temporality, to show how events and ruptures shape the dynamics of a social movement, and secondly, to show how discursive vectors indicate the developing understanding, by networked actors, of the stakes of a movement’s core conflict. In English football, historically significant events like the Hillsborough disaster continue to shape many of the key mobilisations of supporter networks, and their collective, but also complex and contradictory consumption of the game. This movement, Safe Standing, is sociologically important, because it evidences the complex interplay of cultural and technological vectors and their manifestation across the compelling timeframes and orientations which make up the consumption of English football in a post-Hillsborough timescape. By engaging in a 30-year struggle over Hillsborough as a restlessness event, Safe Standing sought to gain control over the interpretation of this timescape and is characterised by the complex struggle supporters face over the ritualistic expression of identity and solidarity.

show abstract

“…From the perspective of economic sociology, it is clear that exchange does not happen according to simple economic rules of demand and supply but is always normatively restricted (Swedberg 2003). The norms that guide the accumulation and exchange of capital may be different on the basis of (assigned) group membership, for example, different for minority and non-minority, different for women and men.…”

Section: Aesthetic Capital: Physical Appearance As a Resourcementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Overall, what appears to unite the fields of work that scholarship on aesthetic labor has focused on is femininity and precariousness. Van den Berg and Arts (2019) suggest that the new ways reinforcing the importance of aesthetics in contemporary labor markets are not only due to the increase in interactive service jobs, but also the discontinuity and precarity of work. For people in precarious post-fordist labor markets, aesthetic labor may be a constant demand regardless of current employment status.…”

Section: Aesthetic Labor: the Requirements Of Looking 'Right'mentioning

confidence: 99%

Gendered Experiences of Appearance-related Perks and Penalties in Finnish Labor Markets

Kukkonen

Sarpila

2021

NJWLS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Physical appearance is generally associated with considerable labor-market sanctions, and appearances are thought to be of particular importance in the feminine service sector. However, little is known about workers’ experiences of appearance-based perks and penalties in Nordic labor markets. Drawing on literature on aesthetic capital and labor, this study aims to fill this research gap. The study uses a nationally representative survey (N = 1600) fielded in Finland and multinomial regression to determine whether subjective experiences of appearance-related perks and penalties are gendered, dependent on the field of work or daily work on appearances. Our main finding is that while both men and women experience looks-based perks and penalties, men are more likely to have experienced appearance having a say in salary negotiations. Our results shed light on the gendered logics of aesthetic capital and labor, and question economic understandings of beauty work as a pathway to labor market success for women

show abstract

The new discomforts of precarious workers: Wardrobe matter, insecurity and the temporality of calibration in dress work

Cited by 7 publications

References 28 publications

Peer Feedback in Aesthetic Labour: Forms, Logics and Responses

Peer Feedback in Aesthetic Labour: Forms, Logics and Responses

The Safe Standing movement: Vectors in the post-Hillsborough timescape of English football

Gendered Experiences of Appearance-related Perks and Penalties in Finnish Labor Markets

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About