Understanding Gendered Labour in a Global City: a Study of Women Shop-floor Employees in a Shopping Mall in Hyderabad
Author: Ipsita Pradhan, ipsitapradhan@icloud.com
Department: Sociology
University: University of Hyderabad, India
Supervisor: Aparna Rayaprol
Year of completion: 2020
Language of dissertation: English
Keywords:
Emotional Labour
, Aesthetic Labour
, Layered Spaces
, Gendered Labour
Areas of Research:
Work
, Body in the Social Sciences
, Women in Society
Abstract
The focus of my doctoral thesis is on the women retail shop-floor employees, commonly called as customer service assistants who occupy the shopping mall in exchange of their labour. What then, is the nature of the labour? What is the nature of the space in which their labour takes place? Does it have meaning only in the physical structure of the mall or does it have a story to tell in the larger context of capitalist globalization, gendered labour and the city? In attempting to answer the above the questions, the thesis aims to look at the marginalities, inclusions and exclusions that are ramifications of the space in which this labour is performed. Broadly the intersectionality framework and the critique of neoliberal capitalist urban spaces guide the analysis. Methodologically, the study stresses the importance of feminist methodologies which emphasize representation of women’s voices. The thesis shows the relationship between gender and work and its ramifications, by using concepts of emotional labour and of aesthetic labour. Through the concept of layered space nature of a shopping mall both as a place of work and the space of work that it produces, is manifested. The study, thus is an attempt to understand labour in neoliberal spaces of consumption.
