Ethnographic Studies of Essential Work: Jana Costas' ‘Dramas of Dignity’ and Peter Birke's ‘Grenzen aus Glas’ as Two German Exemplars

Abstract

This comparative book review is concerned with two recent studies of essential workers in Germany: Jana Costas’ Dramas of Dignity and Peter Birke’s Grenzen aus Glas [literally ‘borders made from glass’]. While Costas is interested in studying how individual cleaners preserve their sense of dignity despite their widely believed stigmatizing work roles, Birke is interested in the power resources migrant workers can potentially mobilize for improving their working conditions despite the multi-dimensional (inter-sectional) precarity they confront in their life situation. In the context of German industrial and organizational sociology, both studies represent comparatively rare exemplars of detailed qualitative and ethnographic work that illuminate the labour process from taking a workers’ perspective. Using different approaches to fieldwork, both studies reveal the precarious nature of being an essential worker in areas such as meat packing, warehouse work, and cleaning. This general observation gives rise to some concluding speculations about the emancipatory potential of ethnographic research, in labour studies and beyond.

Citation

Helfen, M. (2024), "Ethnographic Studies of Essential Work: Jana Costas' ‘Dramas of Dignity’ and Peter Birke's ‘Grenzen aus Glas’ as Two German Exemplars", 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. 163-176. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0277-283320240000036008