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University of California Press

Invisible Labor

Hidden Work in the Contemporary World
by Marion Crain (Editor), Winifred Poster (Editor), Miriam Cherry (Editor), Arlie Russell Hochschild (Foreword by)
Hardcover Paperback eBook
Price: $29.95 / £25.00
Publication Date: Jun 2016
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 336
ISBN: 9780520287174
Trim Size: 6 x 9
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About the Book

Across the world, workers labor without pay for the benefit of profitable businesses—and it's legal. Labor trends like outsourcing and technology hide some workers, and branding and employer mandates erase others. Invisible workers who remain under-protected by wage laws include retail workers who function as walking billboards and take payment in clothing discounts or prestige; waitstaff at “breastaurants” who conform their bodies to a business model; and inventory stockers at grocery stores who go hungry to complete their shifts. Invisible Labor gathers essays by prominent sociologists and legal scholars to illuminate how and why such labor has been hidden from view.

About the Author

Marion G. Crain is Vice Provost, Wiley B. Rutledge Professor of Law, and Director for the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Work and Social Capital at Washington University. 

Miriam A. Cherry is Professor of Law at Saint Louis University. 

Winifred R. Poster is a Stanford-trained sociologist affiliated with Washington University.

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Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
FOREWORD: INVISIBLE LABOR, INAUDIBLE VOICE - ARLIE HOCHSCHILD

PART ONE. EXPOSING INVISIBLE LABOR

1. INTRODUCTION: CONCEPTUALIZING INVISIBLE LABOR
WINIFRED R. POSTER, MARION CRAIN, AND MIRIAM A. CHERRY

2. THE EYE SEES WHAT THE MIND KNOWS: THE CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS OF INVISIBLE WORK
JOHN W. BUDD

3. MAINTAINING HIERARCHIES IN PREDOMINANTLY WHITE ORGANIZATIONS: A THEORY OF RACIAL TASKS AS INVISIBLE LABOR
ADIA HARVEY WINGFI ELD AND RENÉE SKEETE

PART TWO. VIRTUALLY INVISIBLE: DISEMBODIED LABOR VIA TECHNOLOGY AND GLOBALIZATION

4. VIRTUAL WORK AND INVISIBLE LABOR
MIRIAM A. CHERRY

5. THE VIRTUAL RECEPTIONIST WITH A HUMAN TOUCH: OPPOSING PRESSURES OF DIGITAL AUTOMATION AND OUTSOURCING IN INTERACTIVE SERVICES
WINIFRED R. POSTER

PART THREE. PUSHED OUT OF SIGHT: SHIELDED FORMS OF EMBODIED LABOR

6. HIDDEN FROM VIEW: DISABILITY, SEGREGATION, AND WORK
ELIZABETH PENDO

7. SIMPLY WHITE: RACE, POLITICS, AND INVISIBILITY IN ADVERTISING DEPICTIONS OF FARM LABOR
EVAN STEWART

8. PRODUCING INVISIBILITY: SURVEILLANCE, HUNGER, AND WORK IN THE PRODUCE AISLES OF WAL-MART, CHINA
EILEEN M. OTIS AND ZHENG ZHAO

PART IV. LOOKING GOOD AT WORK: INVISIBLE LABOR IN PLAIN SIGHT

9. THE FEMALE BREAST AS BRAND: THE AESTHETIC LABOR OF BREASTAURANT SERVERS
DIANNE AVERY

10. THE INVISIBLE CONSEQUENCES OF AESTHETIC LABOR IN UPSCALE RETAIL STORES
CHRISTINE L. WILLIAMS AND CATHERINE CONNELL

11. FROM INVISIBLE WORK TO INVISIBLE WORKERS: THE IMPACT OF SERVICE EMPLOYERS’ SPEECH DEMANDS ON THE WORKING CLASS
CHRIS WARHURST

PART V. BRANDED AND CONSUMED

12. SELF-BRANDING AMONG FREELANCE KNOWLEDGE WORKERS
ADAM ARVIDSSON, ALESSANDRO GANDINI, AND CAROLINA BANDINELLI

13. CONSUMING WORK
MARION CRAIN

14. CONCLUSION
WINIFRED R. POSTER, MARION CRAIN, AND MIRIAM A. CHERRY

ABOUT THE EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS
INDEX

Reviews

Retail employers demand that their employees represent their brands at considerable cost to themselves, wearing expensive clothes and fulfilling an image. Sexually themed restaurants require hours of "off-stage" grooming to ensure that the employees provide the desired experience for their customers. "Prestigious" corporations offer recent graduates the "privilege" of unpaid internships. Walmart manipulates a service ethic and subjects workers to surveillance from all directions to minimize labor costs. Restaurants conceal the employees toiling in the kitchens, and distant call centers create "American" identities for low-paid foreign labor. Invisible Labor grew out of a 2013 conference at Washington University, and features the provocative contributions of leading scholars exploring the complex institutional realities of global labor markets.
— CHOICE
"This outstanding edited volume goes beyond previous works on invisible labor by providing a more nuanced conceptualization, examining a wide range of workplace contexts both domestic and transnational, and exploring the legal ramifications of hidden workers. All these elements will be incredibly useful for graduates, undergraduates, and anyone else interested in the subject matter."—Jennifer Pierce, author of Racing for Innocence: Whiteness, Gender, and the Backlash against Affirmative Action


"A terrific collection full of insights that will engage specialists, students, and the general reader alike. Although the authors do not claim to have discovered hidden work, they bring its analysis up to date for the twenty-first century's networked and globalized world of work. They draw attention to the many forms of invisibility—where work is hidden from consumers, managers, and workers themselves—and degrees of obscurity. Drawing on a range of disciplines and vivid ethnographic studies that criss-cross the globe and sectors of employment, the authors document the centrality and ubiquity of invisible labor. The emphasis on race and ethnicity with respect to the service sector in the U.S. is particularly welcome. A focus on formal employment relations strengthens the argument, which is further enhanced by a succinct editorial introduction and conclusion, which provide an overarching analytical framework linking the diverse empirical chapters. Resonating with our everyday experiences of life, this is a lively and thought-provoking volume."—Miriam Glucksmann, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Essex