Beyond the symbolic: a relational approach to dirty work through a study of refuse collectors and street cleaners

Jason Hughes, Ruth Simpson, Natasha Slutskaya, Alex Simpson and Kahryn Hughes
Additional contact information
Jason Hughes: University of Leicester, UK
Ruth Simpson: Brunel University, UK
Natasha Slutskaya: Brunel University, UK
Alex Simpson: University of Brighton, UK
Kahryn Hughes: University of Leeds, UK

Work, Employment & Society, 2017, vol. 31, issue 1, 106-122

Abstract: Drawing on a relational approach and based on an ethnographic study of street cleaners and refuse collectors, we redress a tendency towards an overemphasis on the discursive by exploring the co-constitution of the material and symbolic dynamics of dirt. We show how esteem-enhancing strategies that draw on the symbolic can be both supported and undermined by the physicality of dirt, and how relations of power are rooted in subordinating material conditions. Through employing Hardy and Thomas’s taxonomy of objects, practice, bodies and space, we develop a fuller understanding of how the symbolic and material are fundamentally entwined within dirty work, and suggest that a neglect of the latter might foster a false optimism regarding worker experiences.

Keywords: dirt; dirty work; relational ontology; taint (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:31:y:2017:i:1:p:106-122

DOI: 10.1177/0950017016658438

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