IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v37y2023i2p432-448.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Socio-Materiality of Dirty Work: A Critical Realist Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Anna Galazka

    (Cardiff University, UK)

  • Joe O’Mahoney

    (Cardiff University, UK)

Abstract

New materialist applications in ‘dirty work’ studies have rightly emphasised the importance of materiality alongside symbolism. However, these approaches have neglected important themes irreducible to the material world, such as temporality, reflexivity and social structure. This article develops an alternative critical realist perspective on socio-materiality in dirty work which emphasises these themes. It draws on 2016–2017 ethnographic data on the work of clinical photographers of wounds in a UK specialist outpatient wound healing clinic. First, it shows how photographers’ reflexivity mediates the relationship between their embodied materiality and their agency in the physical domain. Second, it highlights the temporal dynamics between reflexive agents, their material environment, and the context of their operation. Finally, it emphasises the non-conflationary relationship between the social structures of the medical hierarchy and photographers’ agency in dirty work. Together, these contributions highlight the utility of an emergent, realist ontology in understanding the dynamics of dirty work.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna Galazka & Joe O’Mahoney, 2023. "The Socio-Materiality of Dirty Work: A Critical Realist Perspective," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 37(2), pages 432-448, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:37:y:2023:i:2:p:432-448
    DOI: 10.1177/09500170211011321
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09500170211011321
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/09500170211011321?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tim Dant & David Bowles, 2003. "Dealing with Dirt: Servicing and Repairing Cars," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 8(2), pages 1-17, May.
    2. Rachel Lara Cohen & Carol Wolkowitz, 2018. "The Feminization of Body Work," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 42-62, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rachel Lara Cohen, 2020. "‘We’re not like that’: Crusader and Maverick Occupational Identity Resistance," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 25(1), pages 136-153, March.
    2. Denise L. Spitzer, 2022. "Working intimacies: Migrant beer sellers, surveillance, and intimate labor in Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 906-921, May.
    3. Laurence Romani & Patrizia Zanoni & Lotte Holck, 2021. "Radicalizing diversity (research): Time to resume talking about class," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 8-23, January.
    4. Mohammed Cheded & Alexandros Skandalis, 2021. "Touch and contact during COVID‐19: Insights from queer digital spaces," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(S2), pages 340-347, July.
    5. Vijayta Doshi, 2021. "Symbolic violence in embodying customer service work across the urban/rural divide," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 39-53, January.
    6. Owain Smolović Jones & Sanela Smolović Jones & Scott Taylor & Emily Yarrow, 2022. "Theorizing gender desegregation as political work: The case of the Welsh Labour Party," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 1747-1763, November.
    7. Bianca Stumbitz & Ameeta Jaga, 2020. "A Southern encounter: Maternal body work and low‐income mothers in South Africa," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(6), pages 1485-1500, November.
    8. Tarini Bedi, 2016. "Mimicry, friction and trans-urban imaginaries: Mumbai taxis/Singapore-style," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(6), pages 1012-1029, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:37:y:2023:i:2:p:432-448. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.