Capital Culture: Gender at Work in the City

by Linda McDowell

Overview

The changing nature of waged work in contemporary advanced industrial nations is one of the most significant aspects of political and economic debate among academics, politicians and policy, makers. It is also the subject of intense debate among contemporary feminist scholars working in the USA and Australia, as well as Britain. The rationale for this book lies in the current transformation of work in advance industrial economies. The shift towards embodied service sector work is not only reshaping gender divisions of labor but also the ways in which men and women do gender in the workplace. This book takes as case study material a particular type of work, the financial services sector, and situates that material within a much wider significance. It is part of a growing series of books about the relationships between the transformation of the economy and the social construction of gender relations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781444399646
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	08/10/2011
Series:	IJURR Studies in Urban and Social Change Book Series , #65
Sold by:	JOHN WILEY & SONS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	260
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Linda McDowell is a Fellow of Newnham College and Lecturer in the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations.

List of Tables.

Series Preface.

Acknowledgements.

Introduction: Money and Work..

Part I. Gender at Work.

Thinking through Work: Gender, Power and Space.

City Work/Places: The Old and New City.

Gendered Work Patterns.

Gendered Career Paths.

The Culture of Banking: Reproducing Class and Gender Divisions..

Part II. Bodies at Work.

Engendered Cultures: The Impossibility of Being a Man.

Body Work 1: Men Behaving Badly.

Body Work 2: The Masqueraders.

Conclusions: Rethinking Work/Places.

Appendix: The Field Work.

Bibliography.

Index.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Some places are immensely symbolic of economic or political power. One such place, the 'City' in London, has long represented the world of international finance both as objectification (the City 'says this') of that world and as the seat of numerous banking, stockbroking and insurance firms. Lacking has been much attention to the cultural practices upon which this material and symbolic power of place is based. Through the lens provided by the gendered character of workplace relations Linda McDowell throws light on the ways in which the City works. No longer dominated by the stuffy image of bowlers and brollies, the City nevertheless is still hostile territory for those whose identities (including many women) are marginalized by the implicit masculinity of City ways. This is a brilliant book, showing the possibilities for theoretically-informed fieldwork on cultural practices at a time when some despair that fieldwork can reveal much of anything." John Agnew, University of California, Los Angeles

"In a short review of this type it is impossible to do full justice to such a rich and thought provoking book." Rob Atkinson, Capital and Class

"This book deserves a wide audience: students of the service sector should find McDowell's theoretical and conceptual insights about this topic useful; students of gender and work will encounter a carefully drawn case study of how gender distinctions are constructed and reproduced on the job. Finally, those interested in cultivating links between their sociological and geographical imaginations will find that Capital Culture can help them to achieve this goal." Amy S. Wharton, Washington State University.
" I cannot recommend this text highly enough. it has everything: theory linking gender relations with power and work; analysis of city gendered life; rich empirical material taken from fieldwork in merchant banking; and, many thought provoking views on macsulinity and feminity." Bob Bushaway, University of Birmingham

Editorial Reviews

"Some places are immensely symbolic of economic or political power. One such place, the 'City' in London, has long represented the world of international finance both as objectification (the City 'says this') of that world and as the seat of numerous banking, stockbroking and insurance firms. Lacking has been much attention to the cultural practices upon which this material and symbolic power of place is based. Through the lens provided by the gendered character of workplace relations Linda McDowell throws light on the ways in which the City works. No longer dominated by the stuffy image of bowlers and brollies, the City nevertheless is still hostile territory for those whose identities (including many women) are marginalized by the implicit masculinity of City ways. This is a brilliant book, showing the possibilities for theoretically-informed fieldwork on cultural practices at a time when some despair that fieldwork can reveal much of anything." John Agnew, University of California, Los Angeles

"In a short review of this type it is impossible to do full justice to such a rich and thought provoking book." Rob Atkinson, Capital and Class

"This book deserves a wide audience: students of the service sector should find McDowell's theoretical and conceptual insights about this topic useful; students of gender and work will encounter a carefully drawn case study of how gender distinctions are constructed and reproduced on the job. Finally, those interested in cultivating links between their sociological and geographical imaginations will find that Capital Culture can help them to achieve this goal." Amy S. Wharton, Washington State University.
" I cannot recommend this text highly enough. it has everything: theory linking gender relations with power and work; analysis of city gendered life; rich empirical material taken from fieldwork in merchant banking; and, many thought provoking views on macsulinity and feminity." Bob Bushaway, University of Birmingham

From the Publisher