Department of Sociology and Social Research

This paper addresses the complex and ambivalent interplay between experiences of irregular migration and asylum seeking in the Italian context. Drawing on ethnographic research carried out in the city of Bologna, I analyse some institutional encounters between migrants seeking asylum and bureaucrats, in an attempt to highlight the contradictory and dynamic nature of a set of categories, laws and policies. Bureaucratic labels such as ‘irregular migrant’, ‘asylum seeker’, ‘Dublin case’, etc., represent intersubjective social constructions, simultaneously ascribed to individuals and actively performed by them. The multiple shifts between different ‘legal’ and ‘illegal’ conditions are shaped by the interactions between immigration laws and policies, local bureaucratic practices and individual experiences. By analysing the morally dense, and unspoken, categories embedded in these processes, I argue that in contemporary Italy asylum seekers are constructed as flexible non-citizens, subjects floating between transient juridical statuses, but consistently kept at the margins of society. Furthermore, I show how asylum seekers themselves can try to perform, transform or subvert the (il)legal and moral categories imposed on them.

The ethnographic inquiry into everyday encounters between migrants and bureaucracies is confronted with the production of a multiplicity of official documents, which play a crucial role in migrants’ lives. A careful methodological revisit of the use of bureaucratic artefacts in the ethnographic research on migrations is therefore essential, not only in order to address the materiality of governance, but also in an attempt of exploring the potentials and limits of the contemporary anthropological approaches to the relations between humans and things. This paper builds on the variety of messages and intents conveyed by medical certificates in the context of asylum seeking in Italy, in order to reflect on the methodological entailments of the study of the social, political and affective dimensions of bureaucratic artefacts.

WORKING PAPER
Contributo presentato al 1° Convegno SISEC
“Le nuove frontiere della Sociologia economica”  - Roma, 26-28 Gennaio 2017
Panel 1: Job flexibility and life course of young people in Europe
(Chair: Sonia Bertolini, Università di Torino; Rosy Musumeci, Università di Torino)
Parole chiave: retail work, emotional labour, tempo, alienazione, deregolamentazione

Times and rhythms of working with customers in the main shopping streets of Milan and London: 2 qualitative case studies in European metropolitan cities characterized by service-oriented economy. In this research the category of time is observed through the perceptions of retail shift workers (RSWs), related to the socioeconomic context of mass consumption, characterized by social acceleration and immediacy. The category of time is socially constructed, historical and situated. Nowadays we can observe an exponential increasing of shopping malls and shops, where the dimension of time is turning in an eternal present. The research topic is the transformation of time in the service society, analyzed from the perspective of retail workers. The aim is to analyze perceptions and feelings of RSWs about their working times and rhythms in two shopping streets of European metropolitan cities: Corso Buenos Aires in Milan, Italy (1), and Oxford Street in London, UK (2). Different urban contexts both characterized by shift work, shop openings on Sundays and on holidays, sometimes at night, and a great affluence of customers. Research participants are RSWs working in phone service stores (A) and clothing-accessories shops (B). The methods used are qualitative methods: interviews, focus groups and ethnographic fieldwork. The contemporary age is characterized by globalization, automatization and delocalization. However, some working activities cannot be delocalized or automatized, as working with customers in the field of emotional labour. Furthermore, this study allows us to observe a process of transformation of social times and rhythms in European cities. Social acceleration has consequences on the pace of work and consumption, as well as on the production processes of Fast Capitalism. In Italy from 2011 shop openings are fully deregulated, so this is a paradigmatic example of the 24/7 service society. These two shopping streets in Milan and London are the most interesting contexts where observe changes in working and consumption times. In 2016 I carried out 6 months of observation in Oxford Street in London, collecting interviews and focus groups with RSW and trade unionists, then I interviewed RSWs working in Milan, Corso Buenos Aires. In total, 20 interviews and 1 focus group with RSWs in each case study (plus some interviews to trade unionists) were collected. The results show that the young RSW in both the contexts have difficulties in planning their future, even in reflecting on themselves. Because of the flexible schedule and the Sunday and Holiday work, they must plan their life accordingly to the work schedule, which often changes at the last minute. They have not power over their own time. They seem to live in a condition of eternal present. Studying this contexts we have to reflect on the power over time, linked to the phenomenon of consumerism and the contraction of time, called social acceleration, or condition of immediacy. I called this process immediatization. The fast pace of work in the shopping areas of the postmodern cities, the demand of instant satisfaction by customers, caused by the phenomenon of consumerism, and working times in a context of deregulation of shop opening hours, generate a condition of anxiety, stress, and alienation.

The topic of the study here presented is retail work in society resulting from mass consumption and the demand for immediate gratification from customers. The author’s thesis is that space and time in the productive and reproductive processes are transformed by two interconnected phenomena: globalization and what she calls immediatization. This paper will firstly examine the category of time as socially constructed in postmodern society. Secondly, we will observe how the dimension of time is perceived now in two situated contexts, shopping streets in two European metropolitan cities, Corso Buenos Aires in Milan, Italy (1) and Oxford Street in London, United Kingdom (2). The case studies have been chosen for the density of stores and the affluence of potential customers. Through a qualitative research the author examined the perceptions of young retail shift workers (RSWs) about their working times (shift work, working on holidays and Sundays) and rhythms (fast-paced work).

Oggetto dello studio qui presentato è il lavoro di vendita diretta in contesti de-rivanti dal consumo di massa e dalla domanda di gratificazione immediata da parte dei clienti. La tesi dell'autrice è che spazio e tempo nei processi produttivi e riproduttivi siano trasformati da due fenomeni interconnessi: globalizzazione e immediatizzazione. Verrà prima esaminata la categoria del tempo come costruzione sociale nelle società a capitalismo avanzato, e vedremo poi come la dimensione del tempo viene percepita in due contesti situati, Corso Buenos Aires a Milano, Italia (1) e Oxford Street a Londra, Regno Unito (2), vie commerciali in due città metropolitane europee. I due casi studio sono stati scelti per la densità di negozi e per l'alta affluenza di potenziali clienti. Attraverso una ricerca qualitativa l'autrice ha indagato le percezioni e sensazioni dei giovani addetti vendita in merito ai tempi (lavoro su turni, festivo e domenicale) e ai ritmi di lavoro (velocità del servizio).

Keywords: Retail work; deregulation; time; alienation

The aim of this research is to understand the perceptions and representations of young retail shift workers (RSWs) about times and rhythms of working with customers. The research case studies are two European shopping streets: Oxford Street in London, United Kingdom, and Corso Buenos Aires in Milan, Italy. The research methods are observation (6 months in each case), interviews, focus groups.

In the last years flexible schedules have grown in Europe, in particular in the service sector. Italy is a paradigmatic example: here shop openings are fully deregulated. The contemporary age is characterized by globalization, automatization and delocalization of industrial production. However, some working activities cannot be delocalized or automatized: working with customers face-to-face, the so called emotional labour (Hochschild 1983) in fast food restaurants (Leidner 1993, Gould 2010), hotels (Scherman 2011) and shops. There is a specific kind of alienation linked to the emotional labour.

Furthermore, this study allows us to observe a process of contraction of times and rhythms in urban contexts, that I call "immediatization". Social acceleration and immediacy (Rosa 2004, Tomlinson 2007), the demand of instant satisfaction by customers and the phenomenon of consumerism as commodity fetishism (Marx 1867, Marcuse 1964, Bauman 2000) have consequences on the pace of work, as well as on the productive processes. The economic system of today is called Fast Capitalism, clothing companies are called Fast Fashion. The young RSWs I interviewed are influenced by these processes: they experience a condition of alienation, lack of control and powerlessness both over their emotions and over their own time, especially their "reflective time", time to think about themselves (Nowotny 1983), necessary to plan their lives as young adults.