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Vibes as value

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Vibes as value explores the relationship between subjectivity, labour and value in the hospitality industry. It develops an approach to hospitality work as a form of affective labour that produces ...
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  • 14 April 2026
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Vibes as value explores the relationship between subjectivity, labour and value in the hospitality industry, and thereby how youth, gender, sexuality, race and social class are embodied and made productive in the service economy. It shows that the key product of hospitality labour is ‘vibes’, or moments of enjoyment and relationality co-produced through exploitative relationships amongst workers and consumers. In the process, the book theorises hospitality as a form of affective labour organised through the normative and structural relations of precarious service work. It shows how identity construction produces value within the highly unequal social terrain of the service economy, and how hospitality labour enacts hierarchies of value extending far beyond the limits of the industry itself.
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Price: $140.00
Pages: 176
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Imprint: Manchester University Press
Publication Date: 14 April 2026
ISBN: 9781526187314
Format: Hardcover
BISACs: SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Urban, Service sector economics, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Labor & Industrial Relations, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Capitalism, Sociology: work and labour, Consumerism
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David Farrugia is ARC Future Fellow at Deakin University, Australia.

Julia Coffey is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Newcastle, Australia.

Steven Threadgold is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Newcastle, Australia.

Megan Sharp is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Léna Molnar is a sociologist and the Research and Evaluation Lead at Women with Disabilities Victoria

Introduction: Labour, identity and value: Young hospitality workers
1 Hospitality as affective labour: Vibes as a product of work
2 Vibes as value: Youthful labour in the hospitality industry
3 Subjects of value: Gender, sexuality, desire and ‘diversity’
4 Creating vibes whilst anticipating risk: Gendered violence in hospitality
5 Class, taste, and the politics of gentrification
Conclusion: Labour, life and the politics of affect in hospitality

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