Floral Ethics and Aesthetics: Understanding Professional Expertise at Work
ISBN: 978-1-83608-149-4, eISBN: 978-1-83608-148-7
Publication date: 3 October 2024
Abstract
This chapter presents a study of ‘floral ethics’, defined as a set of standardized practices for handling flowers shared among members of the florist occupation. Drawing on 36 months of ethnographic fieldwork in flower shops in Switzerland and Chicago, it contributes to the sociology of work and professions by providing a nuanced understanding of the tensions that can arise between the professional expertise of florists and the aesthetic preferences of customers. The findings on the micro-level reveal that adherence to floral ethics serves as a strategy for protecting and maintaining occupational legitimacy. By uncovering divergent conceptions of what constitutes ‘work well done’ among florists, this chapter offers a broader argument on the power asymmetry inherent in service relationships.
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Acknowledgements
Acknowledgement
I extend my gratitude to the reviewers and editors for their insightful and constructive comments on a previous version of my chapter. I gratefully thank the participants in the Ethnography Workshop at Northwestern University and the group of sociologists from the Social Theory and Evidence Workshop at the University of Chicago for their insightful comments on a previous version of this paper that I presented in 2018. I also want to thank my fellow students from the seminar “Ethnographic Methods” (2014) at the University of Chicago.
Citation
Zinn, I. (2024), "Floral Ethics and Aesthetics: Understanding Professional Expertise at Work", Helfen, M., Delbridge, R., Pekarek, A.(A). and Purser, G. (Ed.) Essentiality of Work (Research in the Sociology of Work, Vol. 36), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 145-162. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0277-283320240000036007
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2024 Isabelle Zinn