IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v37y2023i6p1646-1663.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Invisible Room Attendants: Outsourcing as a Dispositive of (In)visibility and the Resistance of Las Kellys in Spain

Author

Listed:
  • Alan Valenzuela-Bustos

    (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain)

  • Ana Gálvez-Mozo

    (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain)

  • Verna Alcalde-Gonzalez

    (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain)

Abstract

Outsourced room attendants have been described as invisible to both guests and management. However, room attendants in Spain have managed to create a movement called Las Kellys , which has raised their visibility and earned them respect in society. The article questions how outsourcing leads to the invisibility of room attendants in Spain and how Las Kellys renders them visible. Based on a study conducted with room attendants who were working at hotels in different parts of Spain in 2020, the results show how outsourcing works as a dispositive that creates invisibility through a socio-spatial and socio-legal segregation, while workers are seen as a number to be managed. Against the dispositive of invisibility, Las Kellys has raised their visibility as social actors to contest these ways of being (in)visible.

Suggested Citation

  • Alan Valenzuela-Bustos & Ana Gálvez-Mozo & Verna Alcalde-Gonzalez, 2023. "Invisible Room Attendants: Outsourcing as a Dispositive of (In)visibility and the Resistance of Las Kellys in Spain," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 37(6), pages 1646-1663, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:37:y:2023:i:6:p:1646-1663
    DOI: 10.1177/09500170221092353
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09500170221092353
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/09500170221092353?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Francesco E Iannuzzi & Devi Sacchetto, 2022. "Outsourcing and workers’ resistance practices in Venice’s hotel industry: The role of migrants employed by cooperatives," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 43(2), pages 877-897, May.
    2. Gabriella Alberti & Francesco E. Iannuzzi, 2020. "Embodied intersectionality and the intersectional management of hotel labour: The everyday experiences of social differentiation in customer‐oriented work," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(6), pages 1165-1180, November.
    3. Alcalde-González, Verna & Gálvez Mozo, Ana & Valenzuela Bustos, Alan, 2021. "No clean rooms, no hotel business: Subversion tactics in Las Kellys’ struggle for dignity in hotel housekeeping," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    4. Stephen Deery & Deanna Kolar & Janet Walsh, 2019. "Can Dirty Work be Satisfying? A Mixed Method Study of Workers Doing Dirty Jobs," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 33(4), pages 631-647, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Teun Eikenaar, 2024. "Experiencing Deportation as Dirty Work? The Case of Dutch Escort Officers," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 38(5), pages 1403-1422, October.
    2. Denis E. Matytsin & Valentin A. Dzedik & Galina A. Markeeva & Saglar B. Boldyreva, 2023. "“Smart” outsourcing in support of the humanization of entrepreneurship in the artificial intelligence economy," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-8, December.
    3. Vijayta Doshi, 2021. "Symbolic violence in embodying customer service work across the urban/rural divide," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 39-53, January.
    4. Emilie Bourlier-Bargues & Jean-Pascal Gond & Bertrand Valiorgue, 2022. "Fast and spurious: How executives capture governance structures to prevent cooperativization," Post-Print hal-03828145, HAL.
    5. Ladkin, Adele & Mooney, Shelagh & Solnet, David & Baum, Tom & Robinson, Richard & Yan, Hongmin, 2023. "A review of research into tourism work and employment: Launching the Annals of Tourism Research curated collection on tourism work and employment," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    6. Francesco E Iannuzzi & Devi Sacchetto, 2022. "Outsourcing and workers’ resistance practices in Venice’s hotel industry: The role of migrants employed by cooperatives," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 43(2), pages 877-897, May.
    7. Anna Galazka & Joe O’Mahoney, 2023. "The Socio-Materiality of Dirty Work: A Critical Realist Perspective," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 37(2), pages 432-448, April.
    8. Verna Alcalde‐González & Ana Gálvez‐Mozo & Alan Valenzuela‐Bustos, 2024. "Social movement unionism in Spain's feminized precarious service sector: Criticism, cooperation and competition," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 62(1), pages 154-173, March.
    9. Andrew Soren & Carol D. Ryff, 2023. "Meaningful Work, Well-Being, and Health: Enacting a Eudaimonic Vision," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(16), pages 1-21, August.
    10. Sarah Jenkins & Wil Chivers, 2022. "Can cooperatives/employee‐owned businesses improve ‘bad’ jobs? Evaluating job quality in three low‐paid sectors," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(3), pages 511-535, September.
    11. Lisa Dorigatti & Francesco E. Iannuzzi & Valeria Piro & Devi Sacchetto, 2024. "Job quality in worker cooperatives: Beyond degeneration and intrinsic rewards," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 62(3), pages 591-613, September.
    12. Julia Coffey & Julia Cook & David Farrugia & Steven Threadgold & Penny Jane Burke, 2021. "Intersecting marginalities: International students' struggles for “survival” in COVID‐19," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(4), pages 1337-1351, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:37:y:2023:i:6:p:1646-1663. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.