Dirty Work, Dirty Resistance: Digital Warfare in the Era of Precarious Labor

Johnston, Matthew S.; Sanscartier, Matthew D.; Johnston, Genevieve

doi:10.1111/cars.12193

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…It then reinforces them through myriad material and symbolic forms of violence. This ensures that workers performing the dirty work of cleaning toilets do not have the agentic resources required to clean their reputations or affirm their dignity by recasting their identity in the self-affirming ways that workers in Global North contexts have reportedly been able to do (Johnston et al, 2018; Soni-Sinha and Yates, 2013; Tracy and Scott, 2006).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They do so by “affirming their dignity through valuing their work and through union membership and participation” (Soni-Sinha and Yates, 2013: 748–749). Also studying the Canadian context, Johnston and colleagues (2018) demonstrate how food service employees use digital spaces to offer online reviews of the extraordinary dirty conditions of certain food service employers and, thereby, warn prospective employees of those employers. The authors find that in posting the critical online reviews, food service employees “‘clean’ their own reputation since they construct themselves as outsiders questioning and resisting [those employers]” (Johnston et al, 2018: 292).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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How is social inequality maintained in the Global South? Critiquing the concept of dirty work

Zulfiqar

Prasad

2022

Human Relations

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Extant research on dirty work—occupations involving physical, social or moral taint, which affect worker identities—has been read primarily through the lens of social identity theory (SIT). There are two notable shortcomings that emerge as a consequent of dirty work being too heavily reliant upon the precepts of SIT, which we seek to remedy in this article: (1) the overemphasis on the symbolic to the detriment of the material, which has led to false optimism regarding the ability for subjects doing dirty work to exercise agency in constructing their own sense of selves and, (2) the failure to substantively account for the role of identity differences, which suggests that empirical research on the phenomenon is devoid of proper historical and cultural contextualization. Drawing on a qualitive study on low-caste toilet cleaners in Pakistan, our findings were largely incongruous with the scholarly conceptualization of dirty work that has been propagated to date. We explicate the embedded role of power and context in dirty work, which are not adequately considered using SIT alone. Repudiating the overly romanticized version of the concept, we argue that SIT’s account of the concept ought to be complemented by social construction theory going forward.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

How is social inequality maintained in the Global South? Critiquing the concept of dirty work

Zulfiqar

Prasad

2022

Human Relations

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“…Online spaces act as digital agoras, enabling collective discussion and critique in oppressive conditions. For example, we have explored elsewhere how digital spaces act as key arenas of building resistant discourses to stigmatising food service work (Johnston et al, 2018). Communications scholars have identified these collective practices as 'digital publics' (Plowman et al, 2015), which are formed in response to some sort of trigger or message that 'sparks' them into being (see Marres, 2005).…”

Section: Bringing Resistance Online: Digital Publicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Get paid, get out’: online resistance to call centre labour in Canada

Johnston

Sanscartier

et al. 2018

New Technol Work Employ

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This qualitative content analysis of 503 anonymous online reviews of 52 Canadian call centres posted on RateMyEmployer.ca explores how forms of resistance, alienation and emotional labour are expressed outside of the workplace. Our study finds that digital publics are producing emotive insurgencies and networks of support within marginalised communities that undermine employers’ attempts at deadening the workforce. The reviews exemplify worker awareness of exploitation as some connect these issues to broader socio‐economic factors that are beyond their control. While many offer tactics to challenge and destabilise their working conditions and culture as well as heartfelt and sarcastic warnings of what one might expect if they pursue call centre employment, others use the online space as a means of venting frustrations, eliciting empathies and expressing sentiments of hope(lessness).

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“…This article joins an emergent literature about managing occupational stigma outside of the workplace (see Ashforth et al, 2017;Johnston et al, 2018). By highlighting the important position of the online forum, we engage a critical yet under-researched arena where resistance and negotiation 'spills over' into external, collective formats.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 93%

Retail therapy: Making meaning out of menial labour

Johnston

Sanscartier

Johnston

2019

Journal of Sociology

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Retail work has a prominent place in the Canadian job market in an era of global capitalism and consumption. Despite spanning an astonishing array of industries, this work is most often low-paying, low-status and un-unionized, leaving workers vulnerable to exploitation and discrimination from their employers. This qualitative content analysis of 1454 anonymous reviews of 25 Canadian retail employers posted on RateMyEmployer.ca explores how intersections of class, race and gender shape how workers make sense of difficult work experiences and their relative social privilege. We draw on Hewitt and Hall’s concept of quasi-theorization to frame how everyday experiences of work justify foregone conclusions that allow reviewers to reassert status. Set against highly gendered, raced and classed expectations of the helpful, deferential, hardworking and cheerful retail worker, these quasi-theories demonstrate that ethnic and racial bias, reactive masculinities and battles between working-class supervisors and middle-class student employees lead to unresolved friction that erupts in anonymous, online spaces.

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Dirty Work, Dirty Resistance: Digital Warfare in the Era of Precarious Labor

Cited by 4 publications

References 42 publications

How is social inequality maintained in the Global South? Critiquing the concept of dirty work

How is social inequality maintained in the Global South? Critiquing the concept of dirty work

‘Get paid, get out’: online resistance to call centre labour in Canada

Retail therapy: Making meaning out of menial labour

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