Gentrified Labour: Meaningful Work After the Middle Class

By Alessandro Gandini

What counts as 'good' work under contemporary Western capitalism? As middle-class occupations demand greater attachment to work amid structural insecurity, many workers turn to manual and material work in search of meaningful work. The book shows how jobs previously considered as low-status are 'resignified' into meaningful occupations via 'artisanalization', and argues that manual labour has not simply been rediscovered, but gentrified. As aspirations for meaningful work are changing, the book reveals that the revival of manual work does not constitute a rejection of middle-class work, but one of its contemporary reconfigurations and discusses its contradictions.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1529252938
• ISBN13: 9781529252934
• Release Date: April 2027
• Publisher: Bristol University Press
• Length: 224 Pages