Service with(out) a smile: The reproduction of gendered consumer violence

Fyrberg Yngfalk, Anna,1980-Mälardalens universitet,Karlstads universitet,Handelshögskolan (from 2013),Mälardalen University, Sweden,Akademin för ekonomi, samhälle och teknik,Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden (författare)

Service with(out) a smile : The reproduction of gendered consumer violence

This paper critically examines consumer violations of employees in the Nordic retail sector. In bringing these violations to light, we analyse how employees become subjectified by the ideals of consumer sovereignty, and how service work is discursively and practically aligned with the notion of the sovereign consumer. We demonstrate how the discourse of consumer sovereignty intersects with gendered service work and the expectations of feminine sexual availability, and how this alignment reproduces gender and power inequalities. Drawing on studies of consumer violence and misbehaviour and feminist research on service work, we argue that the patterns of subjugation and consumer abuse are intrinsically embedded both in the ideal of consumer sovereignty itself and in the strategies that employees use to constitute themselves within prevailing market and gender orders. The study provides a critical understanding of how consumer sovereignty operates in tandem with gender structures to form subjugating practices that both enable and normalise consumer violations.

Fellesson, Markus,1971-Karlstads universitet,Handelshögskolan (from 2013),Centrum för tjänsteforskning (from 2013),Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden(Swepub:kau)markfell (författare)
Karlstads universitetHandelshögskolan (from 2013) (creator_code:org_t)

Om ämnet

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP: SAMHÄLLSVETENSKA ...; och Annan samhällsve ...; och Genusstudier

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP: SAMHÄLLSVETENSKA ...; och Ekonomi och näri ...; och Företagsekonomi

Kungliga biblioteket hanterar dina personuppgifter i enlighet med EU:s dataskyddsförordning (2018), GDPR. Läs mer om hur det funkar här.
Så här hanterar KB dina uppgifter vid användning av denna tjänst.