Embodied acting, belonging and gender inequalities in service work

Islam, Asiya ORCID: 0000-0002-1983-9944 and Philip, Shannon (2025) Embodied acting, belonging and gender inequalities in service work. Sociology. ISSN 0038-0385

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Abstract

This article proposes the concept of ‘embodied acting’ to understand workers’ transformations of their appearances (clothes, makeup) and related behaviours (English speaking, eating out, dating) to create belonging in new service work in Global South contexts characterised by continuing social inequalities amid rapid socio-economic change. The concepts aesthetic labour, emotion work and acting at work, theorised from the Global North, do not account for the aspirational and contested nature of these transformations. Through ethnographic research with young women and men in Delhi, India, the article highlights the role of peer disciplining in translating embodied acting into belonging. While men have patriarchal peer support to realise body rules of service work, women’s embodied acting is intensely scrutinised, rendered hyper visible and delegitimised. This peer disciplining reproduces gender inequalities, negatively impacting women’s belonging at work. Through ethnographic insights into service work in the Global South, the article advances global sociologies of work.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2025 The Author(s)
Divisions:	Gender Studies
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences
Date Deposited:	26 Feb 2025 16:51
Last Modified:	19 Jun 2025 16:42
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/127425

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