Weapons of the poor: Tipping and resistance in precarious times

Paula Mulinari
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Paula Mulinari: Malmö University, Sweden

Economic and Industrial Democracy, 2019, vol. 40, issue 2, 434-451

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to analyse how tipping practices are given meaning and acted upon by customers and employees. Though the concept of moral economy, the article traces the ideas of rights and entitlement that are embedded in tipping. The findings indicate that customers and workers enjoy tipping. The tension between them arises from customers’ use of the tip as a mediator of individual feeling and workers’ emphasis on the tip as an economic income and on the collective processes of service production. Workers use the practice of pooling tips to reduce the economic risk and the processes of individualisation. These strategies are defined as weapons of the poor as they are developed in circumstances of economical vulnerability. The focus is on 24 in-depth interviews with customers and employees. This article offers new insights into the moral economy of tipping and the ways in which it affects the forms of resistance available to workers.

Keywords: Moral economy; resistance; Sweden; tipping (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:40:y:2019:i:2:p:434-451

DOI: 10.1177/0143831X16653188

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