Discourses of flexibility and the rise of the 'Temp industry,or, How I met the 'Kelly Girl' commuting between public and private |
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Authors: | Lisa A Adler |
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Abstract: | This paper argues that multinational Temporary Help Service (THS) firms use gender narratives to sell labor as flexible and in doing so, they proliferate the flexibilization of labor on a global scale and contribute to economic restructuring. How do global processes become daily lived experience? In this article, it is argued that the Temporary Help Service industry expands and maintains a flexible labor force by referring to the multiple identities of women workers. This process is visible in the print advertisements produced by the industry: 943 advertisements which appeared between 1980 and 1990 were analyzed to show how the industry relies on the trope of white womanhood to position and sell its product. |
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Keywords: | Flexibility Gender Public/Private Multinational Temporary Workers Economy |
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