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Ocularcentric Labour: "you don't do this for money"
Resource type
Authors/contributors
- Sappey, Jennifer (Author)
- Maconachie, Glenda (Author)
Title
Ocularcentric Labour: "you don't do this for money"
Abstract
Building on the tradition of emotional labour and aesthetic labour, this study of fitness workers introduces the concept of "ocularcentric labour" (the worker seeking the adoring gaze of the client as the primary reward). It is a state in which labour's quest for the psycho-social rewards gained from their own body image shapes the employment relationship (both the organization of work and the conditions of employment). We argue that for many fitness workers the goal is to gain access to the positional economy of the fitness centre to promote their celebrity. For this they are willing to trade-off standard conditions of employment, and exchange traditional employment rewards for the more intrinsic psycho-social rewards gained through the exposure of their physical capital to the adoration of their gazing clients. Significantly, with ocularcentric labour the worker becomes both the site of production and consumption.
Publication
Relations Industrielles
Volume
67
Issue
3
Pages
505-525
Date
Summer 2012
Language
English
ISSN
0034379X
Short Title
Ocularcentric Labour
Accessed
3/25/15, 3:47 PM
Rights
Copyright Universite Laval - Departement des Relations Industrielles Summer 2012
Citation
Sappey, J., & Maconachie, G. (2012). Ocularcentric Labour: “you don’t do this for money.” Relations Industrielles, 67(3), 505–525. http://www.erudit.org/revue/ri/2012/v67/n3/index.html
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