Vibes As Value - Young Workers and Affective Labour in the Service Economy

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.

About the author

David Farrugia is ARC Future Fellow at Deakin University, Australia.

Julia Coffey is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Newcastle, Australia.

Steven Threadgold is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Newcastle, Australia.

Megan Sharp is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Léna Molnar is a sociologist and the Research and Evaluation Lead at Women with Disabilities Victoria

Product details

• Authors: Coffey Julia, David Coffey Farrugia, Farrugia David, Lena Molnar, Megan Sharp, Threadgold Steven
• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 14.04.2026
• EAN: 9781526187314
• ISBN: 978-1-5261-8731-4
• No. of pages: 192
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > Politics, society, business > Politics; Social sciences, law, business > Business > Individual industrial sectors, branches; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Urban, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Labor & Industrial Relations, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Capitalism, Sociology: work & labour, Consumerism, Sociology: work and labour, Service sector economics