Simpson, Slutskaya, Lewis and Höpfl (ed): Dirty Work – Concepts and Identities, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012

Abstract

Simpson, Slutskaya, Lewis & Hopfl (ed): Dirty Work - Concepts and Identities, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012This is an important book! I thought to myself, as I happened to discover that it was forthcoming with Palgrave while I was immersed in a review of the concept of dirty work. The concept of dirty work has been around in the literature for more than half a century and occupations have dirty work to do, as Everett Hughes famously stated back in 1951 as he coined the concept in an article on nurse's work in the American Journal of Nursing. Surprisingly, few studies, however, have addressed the concept empirically or analytically. This is exactly what this book does, and that alone makes it a contribution to the literature. Now what kind of contribution is it then?The anthology contains 13 chapters including an introduction by the four editors that briefly covers the most important conceptual and empirical dimensions of dirty work. The editors highlight that aim in the book is to render aspects of dirt and dirty work more visible. (p. 2). In order to do so, the editors advocate an approach that takes into account its social and cultural meanings as well as its fluid (p. 2). Moreover, they suggest that the conventional model of physical, social, and moral taint is not sufficient to capture the complex, contingent, and fluid nature and meaning of dirty work (p. 8, 11) and that occupational boundaries, work practices and the meanings around dirt and cleanliness are accordingly more fluid and subject to reinterpretation and change, rather than being fixed, stable and rooted in a job task or role (p. 11).The book covers a diverse empirical area. Melissa Tyler (Chapter 5) takes us into sex shops in Soho, Gina Grandy and Sharon Mavin (Chapter 6) study erotic dancers doing of gender in a UK strip club chain, and Giulia Selmi (Chapter 7) takes us into two erotic call centers in Italy. The three sex contexts are followed by three studies of nursing by Robert McMurray (Chapter 8), Paul White and Alison Pullen (Chapter 9), and Ruth Simpson, Natasha Slutskaya, and Jason Hughes (Chapter 10). In Chapter 12, Geraldine Lee-Treweek takes us to study migrants in a light industrial setting in the Northton area through 25 semi-structured interviews. All these contexts are conventionally associated with one and often several types of dirty work. However, a few of the chapters in the book explore areas that are perhaps less obviously dirty. Liz Stanley and Kate Mackenzie-Davey (Chapter 4) explore the case of investment bankers after the financial crises and Elaine Swan (Chapter 11) studies transnational corporate feminism through magazine culture in the 2007 supplement of Harper's Bazaar, a high-end woman's magazine. Finally, Patricia Lewis (Chapter 13) interprets disgust from the narrative of one interview with a female entrepreneur.Theoretically, all the chapters in the book are written from a social constructivist perspective and most of the contributions are very much inspired by (post)feminism and post-structuralism. …