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Class performance: An empirical case of Chinese service workers in hair salons

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  • Wenzhao Chen

Abstract

China's service sector has attracted millions of internal migrants from impoverished rural areas. This research investigates how service work contributes to the reproduction of class inequalities in China through the everyday interactions between service workers and customers. Based on 15 in‐depth interviews with Chinese service workers in hair salons, this research argues that the workers conducted class performance to distinguish their class from others. Specifically, they displayed aesthetic and interactive class performance at work through aesthetic labour and deferential work to legitimize the superiority of middle‐class aesthetics and the middle‐class customers' sense of entitlement. Moreover, under the circumstances of increasing job instability and the suzhi discourse, the workers' class performance could also be extended to their lives through entrepreneurial labour and relational work. While the service workers could exert agency through certain strategies in their class performance, their agency was still limited in the structural constraints and even reinforced class inequalities. This research deepens the understanding of class inequalities in the Chinese context and provides policy implications to diminish class inequalities. El sector servicios de China ha atraído a millones de emigrantes internos procedentes de zonas rurales empobrecidas. Esta investigación analiza cómo el trabajo en el sector servicios contribuye a reproducir las desigualdades de clase en China a través de las interacciones cotidianas entre los trabajadores de servicios y los clientes. A partir de 15 entrevistas en profundidad a trabajadores chinos de los servicios de peluquería, esta investigación sostiene que los trabajadores se comportaban en función de su clase para distinguir su clase de las demás. En concreto, se comportaban en función de su clase en el ámbito estético e interactivo de su trabajo a través de las labores estéticas y la deferencia en el trabajo para legitimar la superioridad de la estética de clase media y el sentido de merecimiento de los clientes de clase media. Además, en las circunstancias de creciente inestabilidad laboral y del discurso suzhi, el comportamiento de los trabajadores en función de su clase también podría extenderse al resto de sus vidas mediante el trabajo emprendedor y el trabajo relacional. Aunque los trabajadores del sector servicios podían ejercer su agencia mediante determinadas estrategias en su comportamiento de clase, su agencia seguía estando limitada por las limitaciones estructurales e incluso estas reforzaban las desigualdades de clase. Esta investigación profundiza en la comprensión de las desigualdades de clase en el contexto chino y aporta implicaciones políticas para disminuirlas. 中国のサービス部門では、国内の貧しい農村部からの何百万人もの移住者が働いている。本研究は、サービス労働者と顧客との日常的な相互作用を通して、サービス部門における労働が中国における階級格差の再生産にどのように寄与しているかを検討する。ヘアーサロンで働く中国人労働者を対象に15件の詳細なインタビューを実施したところ、インタビューを受けた労働者は自分の階級を他の階級と区別するためにクラスパフォーマンス (class performance)を行ったと考えられる。具体的には、彼らは、美的労働と丁寧な仕事を通じて、仕事において美的でインタラクティブなクラスパフォーマンスを発揮し、中産階級の美意識の優位性と中産階級の顧客の権利意識を正当化した。さらに、雇用の不安定性と「suzhi (素质)」に関する言説が増大している状況下では、労働者のクラスパフォーマンスは、起業的労働と関係的労働 (relational work)を通じて彼らの生活にも拡大される可能性がある。サービス労働者は、彼らのクラスパフォーマンスにおいて、ある戦略によって主体性を発揮することができたが、彼らの主体性は依然として構造的に制約されており、階級格差さえも促進されていた。この研究から、中国の状況における階級格差の解明が進められ、階級格差を縮小させるための政策的インプリケーションを得ることができる。

Suggested Citation

  • Wenzhao Chen, 2023. "Class performance: An empirical case of Chinese service workers in hair salons," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(9), pages 1926-1940, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:rgscpp:v:15:y:2023:i:9:p:1926-1940
    DOI: 10.1111/rsp3.12657
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Harvey, David, 2007. "A Brief History of Neoliberalism," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199283279.
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    3. Chris Warhurst & DENNIS NICKSON & ANNE WITZ & ANNE MARIE CULLEN, 2000. "Aesthetic Labour in Interactive Service Work: Some Case Study Evidence from the ‘New’ Glasgow," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 1-18, July.
    4. Xiaogang Wu & Donald Treiman, 2004. "The household registration system and social stratification in China: 1955–1996," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 41(2), pages 363-384, May.
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