Vibes as value

Young workers and affective labour in the service economy

David Farrugia, Julia Coffey, Steven Threadgold, Megan Sharp, Lena Molnar

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Year: 2026
• Print ISBN:
  9781526187314
• eBook ISBN:
  9781526187307
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Labour & Industrial Relations
• Index: Social Sciences

Vibes as value explores the relationship between subjectivity, labour and value in the hospitality industry, and thereby how youth, gender, sexuality, race and social class are embodied and made productive in the service economy. It shows that the key product of hospitality labour is 'vibes', or moments of enjoyment and relationality co-produced through exploitative relationships amongst workers and consumers. In the process, the book theorises hospitality as a form of affective labour organised through the normative and structural relations of precarious service work. It shows how identity construction produces value within the highly unequal social terrain of the service economy, and how hospitality labour enacts hierarchies of value extending far beyond the limits of the industry itself.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Figures
• Introduction Labour, identity, and value: young hospitality workers
• 1: Hospitality as affective labour: vibes as a product of work
• 2: Vibes as value: youthful labour in the hospitality industry
• 3: Subjects of value: gender, sexuality, desire, and ‘diversity’
• 4: Creating vibes while anticipating risk: gendered violence in hospitality
• 5: Class, taste, and the politics of gentrification
• Conclusion: labour, life, and the politics of affect in hospitality
• References
• Index