Getting a grip’? Phenomenological insights into handling work place in London’s Soho

Dados Bibliográficos

ID9891508
AutoresKathleen Riach (0000-0002-2135-0398, University of Glasgow, autor correspondente), M Tyler (0000-0002-4481-3543, University of Essex, autor correspondente)
Ano2024
Volume77
Fascículo2
Páginas172-199
Data de publicação2024-02-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoHuman Relations (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0018-7267 • E-ISSN: 1741-282X
EditoraSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/00187267221135016
OpenAlexW4304960660
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas4
Referências citadas38

How are working lives shaped by the demands and expectations associated with a particular workplace? And how are work identities enacted to demonstrate a capacity to cope with place-based demands, expectations and associations? Drawing on insights from phenomenological perspectives on space, place and situated experience, particularly Merleau-Ponty’s concept of ‘grip’, and interview data drawn from longitudinal research with men and women working in London’s Soho, this article shows how working lives and identities are situated within, and enacted through, practices that involve developing and demonstrating a capacity for place handling. The analysis shows how this is negotiated by those working in iconic locales in which their working lives and identities are shaped by meanings that are both evolving and enduring, and that require them to get and maintain a demonstrable grip on the setting in which they work. In contributing to a growing interest in understanding working lives as situated phenomena, the article challenges the idea that work is increasingly place-less, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the digitalization of work accelerated by it, emphasizing how where work takes place continues to matter to how it is enacted and experienced

Interpretative phenomenological analysis · Qualitative research · Situated · Social science · Sociology · Space (punctuation) · Work (physics · Computer Science · Emotional Labor in Professions · Engineering · Gender Studies · Management and Organizational Studies · Psychology