Linda McDowell is Professor of Human Geography and Director of the Graduate School of Geography at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of St. John's College, where she is also Director of the Research Centre. Widely published, McDowell's books include Capital Culture: Gender at Work in the City (1997), Redundant Masculinities? Employment Change and White Working Class Youth (2003) and Hard Labour (2005).

"Nevertheless, the book is accessibly written, and the variety of themes it explores will ensure it has broad appeal among undergraduates and postgraduates studying social division, gender, service work, labour relations and their relationships. The book also provides academics working in and across the disciplines of sociology and human geography with a good overview of research into interactive work and its implications in contemporary society." (Work, Employment & Society, 25 March 2011)"Between the covers of this beautifully crafted book is a thoughtful, innovative, and thorough analysis of high-touch interactive service work that draws on numerous case studies and ethnographies, mostly from the United Kingdom, and on the author's own original research. . . . This ambitious book is insightful and informative, and it makes a valuable contribution to the study of work in contemporary capitalist societies". (Canadian Journal of Sociology, 2010)

• List of Illustrations viSeries Editors’ Preface viiPreface and Acknowledgements viii1 Service Employment and the Commoditization of the Body 1Part I Locating Service Work 232 The Rise of the Service Economy 253 Thinking Through Embodiment: Explaining Interactive Service Employment 49Part II High-Touch Servicing Work in Private and Public Spaces 774 Up Close and Personal: Intimate Work in the Home 795 Selling Bodies I: Sex Work 1016 Selling Bodies II: Masculine Strength and Licensed Violence 129Part III High-Touch Servicing Work in Specialist Spaces 1597 Bodies in Sickness and in Health: Care Work and Beauty Work 1618 Warm Bodies: Doing Deference in Routine Interactive Work 1919 Conclusions: Bodies in Place 212References 229Index 256