Gender, Class and Occupation

This
insightful new study explores an emerging and growing interest in Sociology and
Organization Studies which concerns the meanings and experiences of ‘dirty’
work. Based on a unique study of male street
cleaners, refuse collectors, graffiti removers and butchers, and drawing on
Bourdieu as a theoretical frame, it presents an ‘embodied’ understanding of
‘dirty’ work. Gender, Work and Occupation
explores new avenues of workplace studies, highlighting how material
conditions both support and constrain processes of occupation-based ideological
constructions. Using original field research, the authors put forward a
different agenda in terms of how we think about dirty work, and how we can
explore and understand the ‘lived experiences’ of dirty workers.