The Contradictions of Communicative Labor in Service Work

Bibliographic Data

ID12739736
AuthorsDavid Carlone (Russian State Agrarian Correspondence University, corresponding author)
Year2008
Volume5
Issue2
Pages158-179
Publication date2008-06-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCommunication and Critical/Cultural Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1479-1420 • E-ISSN: 1479-4233
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14791420801989710
OpenAlexW1966613326
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited12

Boundaries dividing communication and culture from economy are fluid. The US services economy, with broad and deep growth, illustrates this fluidity. This paper applies theorizations of the relationship between communication and capitalism to a customer service job-training course for dislocated workers. A site of communication education, the course teaches students to be successful customer service representatives. Customer service communicative labor bridges production and consumption and, thus, is contradictory. The communicative labor translates the communication commonplace of mutuality into a self-other technology to affirm customers, and also requires a technology that objectifies customers. Job-training students resist this contradiction

Business · Capitalism · Consumption (sociology · Contradiction · Customer service · Economics · Emotional labor · Linguistics · Management · Market economy · Microeconomics · Political science · Production (economics · Public relations · Service (business · Service economy · Social science · Sociology · Tertiary sector of the economy · Work (physics · Cultural and Communication Design Research · Emotional Labor in Professions · Engineering · Management and Organizational Studies · Marketing

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