Title: Invited commentary: Can emotional labour be fun?

Authors: Arlie Russell Hochschild

Addresses: Department of Sociology, University of California Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

Abstract: Can emotional labour be fun? Of course, but not in broken care systems. In understaffed, hyper-bureaucratised facilities, maintained by migrant workers torn from their families, where care itself is rendered invisible, it is harder to enjoy emotional labour. Indeed, a broken system calls for a secondary form of emotion work – dealing with how the broken system makes you feel.

Keywords: emotion work; broken systems; emotional labour; discontent; hyper-bureaucratised care; globalised care; devalued care; migrant workers; feelings; care systems.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWOE.2009.030929

International Journal of Work Organisation and Emotion, 2009 Vol.3 No.2, pp.112 - 119

Published online: 13 Jan 2010 *

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