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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Work, Economy and Organizations

2012

Inequality

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Aesthetic Labour At The Coffee Shop: Exploring Young Workers' Perceptions Of The Service Encounter, Diana Judit Szabo May 2012

Aesthetic Labour At The Coffee Shop: Exploring Young Workers' Perceptions Of The Service Encounter, Diana Judit Szabo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Using qualitative data gathered from in-depth interviews, this research aims to elucidate how young coffeehouse baristas experience the service encounter. As "aesthetic labourers," baristas are hypothesized to possess a certain level of embodied capital, which empowers them in their interactions with customers. However, many young interactive service workers are stopgap workers who do not intend to make careers out of their part-time jobs. How does their unique position in the labour market influence the ways in which these workers experience employment in the lower tier of the service sector? The findings suggest that age and class intersect in the coffeehouse …


The Disappearing Middle Class: Implications For Politics And Public Policy, Trevor Richard Beltz Jan 2012

The Disappearing Middle Class: Implications For Politics And Public Policy, Trevor Richard Beltz

CMC Senior Theses

What does it mean to be middle class? The majority of Americans define themselves as members of the middle class, regardless of their wealth. The number of Americans that affiliate with the middle class alludes to the idea that it cannot be defined simply by level of income, number of assets, type of job, etc. The middle class is a lifestyle as much as it is a group of similarly minded people, just as it is a social construct as much as it is an economic construct. Yet as the masses fall away from the elite, and changes continue to …