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Symbolic violence in embodying customer service work across the urban/rural divide
Author(s) -
Doshi Vijayta
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
gender, work and organization
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.159
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1468-0432
pISSN - 0968-6673
DOI - 10.1111/gwao.12571
Subject(s) - embodied cognition , middle class , cultural capital , service (business) , work (physics) , class (philosophy) , sociology , capital (architecture) , business , geography , marketing , political science , computer science , social science , engineering , mechanical engineering , archaeology , artificial intelligence , law
Drawing on a Bourdieuian theoretical framework, this article examines how the urban/rural divide informs the embodiment of customer service work at retail counters in shopping malls in India. Based on an analysis of extensive interviews as well as on‐site observations during 4 years of fieldwork, I document the cross‐class interactions between urban middle‐class customers and rural migrant lower‐class retail workers. I found that rural migrant workers engage in bodywork to embody service work in line with urban cultural “protocols” for customer interactions. Despite their efforts to acquire this valued embodied cultural capital, urban middle‐class customers continuously othered rural migrant workers. The study extends the service work literature on embodiment by pointing to the urban/rural divide in contexts of sustained rural/urban migration, such as India, and more broadly, the Global South. Second, it shows the symbolic violence in customer–worker dynamics reproducing class domination along the urban/rural divide.