Affected labour in a cafe culture: the atmospheres and economics of 'hip' Melbourne - 10

What does it mean to work in the 'hip' postmodern economy?

This book develops the concept of 'affected labour' within Melbourne, Australia.

Through the lens of café and bar culture, it provides an ethnographic investigation into the ways that affect arises, circulates, sticks and dissipates over the course of everyday encounters.

The dynamics and atmospheres of affective labour among those working in the hospitality-oriented environments are unfolded.

Service work is rooted in the notion that labour is 'performed' by an exhausted worker for a demanding customer.

The author goes beyond this idea by describing the way not only consumers are moved by the experience and seduced by the atmosphere, but more pressingly workers and employers.