Intra-labour power relations and wellbeing: A feminist analysis of hotel cleaning and housekeeping work in metropolitan Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Description

Conference presentation: In the past two decades, studies carried out across countries have suggested that the labour of hotel housekeeping has become more intense and the position of workers in this sector of work ever more precarious. These developments have arguably
evolved from hotels’ ongoing efforts to generate profits at the expense of labour conditions, which also in part stem from the increasing pressure on larger hotel chains to show their shareholders increased performance and flexibility in operations. Drawing on interviews held with workers in hotel cleaning and housekeeping in metropolitan Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in this paper we start from the notion that hotel cleaning and housekeeping work is crucial to the sustenance of spaces of consumption and the social reproduction of tourists and other mobile subjects. Within the context metropolitan Amsterdam, this work has traditionally been carried out by women, racialized and migrant workers. As we trace how hierarchies in the work-/social reproductive spaces and fragmentation of the workforce impact the workers’ wellbeing, our analysis enters into conversations with Black, socialist, and transnational feminist theories of social reproduction while placing an emphasis on “intra-labour” power relations and agency (Mehrotra 2017, Warren 2019).

Period	25 Aug 2024
Event title	International Geographical Union: International Geographical Congress
Event type	Conference/symposium
Location	Dublin, IrelandShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International