Through a series of case studies of low-status interactive and embodied servicing work,Working Bodies examines the theoretical and empirical nature of the shift to embodied work in service-dominated economies.Defines body work to include the work by service sector employees on their own bodies and on the bodies of othersSets UK case studies in the context of global patterns of economic changeExplores the consequences of growing polarization in the service sectorDraws on geography, sociology, anthropology, labour market studies, and feminist scholarship

Linda McDowell is Professor of Human Geography and Director of the Graduate School of Geography at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of St. John's College, where she is also Director of the Research Centre.  Widely published, McDowell's books includeCapital Culture: Gender at Work in the City (1997),Redundant Masculinities? Employment Change and White Working Class Youth (2003) andHard Labour (2005).

List of Illustrations vi

Series Editors Preface vii

Preface and Acknowledgements viii

1 Service Employment and the Commoditization of the Body 1

Part I Locating Service Work 23

2 The Rise of the Service Economy 25

3 Thinking Through Embodiment: Explaining Interactive Service Employment 49

Part II High-Touch Servicing Work in Private and Public Spaces 77

4 Up Close and Personal: Intimate Work in the Home 79

5 Selling Bodies I: Sex Work 101

6 Selling Bodies II: Masculine Strength and Licensed Violence 129

Part III High-Touch Servicing Work in Specialist Spaces 159

7 Bodies in Sickness and in Health: Care Work and Beauty Work 161

8 Warm Bodies: Doing Deference in Routine Interactive Work 191

9 Conclusions: Bodies in Place 212

References 229

Index 256