More‐than‐human emotions: Multispecies emotional labour in the tourism industry

an article by Katherine Dashper (Leeds Beckett University, UK) published in Gender, Work and Organization Volume 27 Issue 1 (January 2020)

Abstract

The concept of emotional labour has been subject to critique, evaluation, development and extension over the last 35 years, but it remains firmly anthropocentric. This article begins to address this shortcoming by illustrating some of the productive potential of extending the concept of emotional labour to include more‐than‐human and multispecies perspectives.

Organisations are not solely human phenomena, but research usually fails to consider the role of non‐humans in work in contemporary capitalism. Using the example of trail horses in tourism, I argue that some non‐human animals should be considered workers, and that they do perform emotional labour in service to commercial organisations.

More‐than‐human and multispecies perspectives capture some of the complexities of everyday organisational practices, and can inform feminist research attuned to the experiences of marginalised others, human and non‐human.

Labels:
emotional_labour, horses, multispecies, non-human_animals, service_work, tourism.

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