Research on emotional labour in the workplace — including beauty salons — has relied on workers' reports of emotional labour; few researchers have examined workers' moment-by-moment workday experience to explicate the practices of emotional labour in action. Using conversation analysis (CA) of a single interaction between a client and a beauty therapist, we show how task-directed talk, and even aspects of the physical work itself, may be designed to perform a dual function: to complete, satisfactorily, the procedure for which the client is paying, and to perform some of those actions that researchers have dubbed `emotional labour'. In our data, the therapist gives precedence to performing the emotional labour over the immediate accomplishment of the institutionally defined goal (hair removal), thereby providing concrete, recorded evidence for the claim that emotional labour is a job requirement for beauty therapy.
Black, P. (2004) The Beauty Industry: Gender, Culture, Pleasure . London: Routledge.
2.
Calhoun, C.C. (1992) `Emotional Work', in E.B. Cole and S. Coultrap-McQuin (eds) Explorations in Feminist Ethics: Theory and Practice, pp. 117—22. Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press.
3.
Fineman, S. (1996) `Emotion and Organizing', in S.R. Clegg, C. Hardy and W.R. Nord (eds) Handbook of Organization Studies, pp. 543—64. London: Sage.
4.
Frith, H. and Kitzinger, C. (1998) `“Emotion Work” as a Participant Resource: A Feminist Analysis of Young Women's Talk-in-interaction', Sociology32(2): 299—320.
5.
Gimlin, D. (1996) `Pamela's Place: Power and Negotiation in the Hair Salon', Gender & Society10(5): 505—26.
6.
Goodwin, C. (1996) `Transparent Vision', in E. Ochs, E.A. Schegloff and S. Thompson (eds) Interaction and Grammar , pp. 370—404. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
7.
Heritage, J. and Atkinson, J.M. (1984). `Introduction', in J.M. Atkinson and J. Heritage (eds) Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis , pp. 1—15. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
8.
Heritage, J. and Stivers, T. (1999) `Online Commentary in Acute Medical Visits: A Method of Shaping Patient Expectations', Social Science & Medicine49: 1501—17.
9.
Hochschild, A. (1983) The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
10.
James, N. (1989) `Emotional Labour: Skill and Work in the Social Regulation of Feelings', Sociological Review37: 15—47.
11.
Kitzinger, C. (2004) `Feminist approaches', in C. Seale, G. Gobo, J.F. Gubrium and D. Silverman (eds) Qualitative Research Practice, pp. 125—40. London: Sage.
12.
Korczynski, M. (2003) `Communities of Coping: Collective Emotional Labour in Service Work', Organization10(1): 55—79.
13.
LeBaron, C.D. and Jones, S.E. (2002) `Closing up Closings: Showing the Relevance of the Social and Material Surround to the Completion of Interaction', Journal of Communication52(3): 542—65.
14.
Levinson, S.C. (1983) `Conversational Structure', in S.C. Levinson Pragmatics, pp. 284— 370. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
15.
Mirchandani, K. (2003) `Challenging Racial Silences in Studies of Emotion Work: Contributions from Anti-racist Feminist Theory', Organization Studies24(5): 721—42.
16.
Pomerantz, A. (1984) `Agreeing and Disagreeing with Assessments: Some Features of Preferred/Dispreferred Turn Shapes', in J.M. Atkinson and J. Heritage (eds) Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis , pp. 57—101. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
17.
Sanders, T. (2004) `Controllable Laughter: Managing Sex Work Through Humour', Sociology38(2): 273—91.
18.
Schegloff, E.A. (1972) `Notes on a Conversational Practice: Formulating Place', in D.N. Sudnow (ed.) Studies in Social Interaction, pp. 75—119. New York: The Free Press.
19.
Schegloff, E.A. (1979) `The Relevance of Repair to Syntax for Conversation ', Syntax and Semantics12: 261—86.
20.
Schegloff, E.A. (1995) `Sequence Organization', unpublished manuscript , University of California, Los Angeles.
21.
Schegloff, E.A. (2000) `Overlapping Talk and the Organization of Turn-Taking for Conversation', Language in Society29: 1—63.
22.
Schegloff, E.A., Jefferson, G. and Sacks, H. (1977) `The Preference for Self-Correction in the Organization of Repair in Conversation', Language53: 361—82.
23.
Sharma, U. and Black, P. (2001) `Look Good, Feel Better: Beauty Therapy as Emotional Labour', Sociology35(4): 913—31.
24.
Smith, D.E. (1988) `Femininity as Discourse', in L.G. Roman and L.K. Christian-Smith , with E. Ellsworth (eds) Becoming Feminine: The Politics of Popular Culture, pp. 37—59. London: The Falmer Press.
25.
Tancred, P. (1995) `Women's Work: A Challenge to the Sociology of Work', Gender, Work and Organization2(1): 11—20.
26.
Toerien, M. and Kitzinger, C. (2007, in press) `Emotional Labour in Action: Navigating Multiple Involvements in the Beauty Salon', Sociology41(4).
27.
Toerien, M. and Wilkinson, S. (2003) `Gender and Body Hair: Constructing the Feminine Woman', Women's Studies International Forum26(4): 333—44.
28.
Toerien, M. and Wilkinson, S. (2004) `Exploring the Depilation Norm: A Qualitative Questionnaire Study of Women's Body Hair Removal', Qualitative Research in Psychology1: 69—92.
29.
Toerien, M., Wilkinson, S. and Choi, P.Y.L. (2005) `Body Hair Removal: The “Mundane” Production of Normative Femininity', Sex Roles52: 399—406.
