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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
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. 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.
    2. 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).
    3. 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.
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