Walking Mannequins

Joya Misra is Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She studies inequality from an intersectional perspective, including within workplace organizations. She has published in an array of journals and had coedited three books. Kyla Walters is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University. She studies race, gender, labor, and education politics using qualitative methods. She has published in journals such as Sociology of Race and Ethnicity and in several edited volumes.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Part I Introduction

Introduction
“If They Could Put You in the Store as a Mannequin, They Would”

1. Low Wages, Little Training, and Unpredictable Hours
   “It Makes You Realize How Awful These Retail Jobs Are”

Part II Managers, Coworkers, and Customers

2. Multilevel Management and the Service Panopticon
   “We’ve Only Had One District Manager That Was a Normal Human Being”

3. Coworkers and Belonging
   “We Are Like a Family”; “If It Weren’t for Work, I Wouldn’t Talk to You”

4. Customer Expectations and Emotional Labor
   “It’s All about the Customer’s Experience”

Part III Aesthetic Labor

5. Beautiful Bodies on the Sales Floor
   “They Basically Look for People That Look Like the Posters”

6. Modeling the Merchandise
   “They Always Check You, from Head to Toe”
   
Conclusion 

Appendix: Research Design and Methods
Notes
References
Index