The shaping of the neoliberal worker: Socialisation of young adults through flexible hospitality work

Agnieszka Rydzik and Chavan Sharma Kissoon

Annals of Tourism Research, 2022, vol. 97, issue C

Abstract: Neoliberal reforms have led to a profound transformation of the UK labour market and the higher education sector, resulting in precarisation of work, youth underemployment and employability-focused universities. Relying on a flexible young workforce, tourism and hospitality workplaces have been at the forefront of these changes. This article examines implications of these macro-level transformations for young workers and the role of hospitality workplaces in shaping understandings of work. Drawing on 44 interviews with university students on zero-hour contracts in UK hospitality, the article theorises student-workers' socialisation to work. It shows how, as anticipatory work socialisation spaces, hospitality workplaces contribute to the shaping of neoliberal subjectivities through normalisation of certain, sometimes troubling, working practices.

Keywords: Hospitality work; Neoliberalism; Students; Work socialisation; Worker agency; Zero-hour contracts (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:anture:v:97:y:2022:i:c:s0160738322001219

DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2022.103470

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