Labor process in the service sector: The case of tourism service workers in holiday villages on the southern coast of Turkey, 1980-2012

Abstract

This dissertation examines employment and working conditions of tourism service workers employed in mass tourism-oriented holiday villages located in Manavgat (Antalya) and Fethiye (Muğla). By focusing on workplace and the production character of holiday villages, the research explores the relations of service production from the workers’ perspective. By utilizing Marxism inspired Labor Process Theory (LPT), it aims to reveal the dynamics of industrialization in the services. Thus, it contributes to the understanding of labor process in the growing services, bringing the perspective of a developing country. The study argues that the industrialization in the tourism services that are provided in holiday villages is a factor of increasing competition that came with a change in the marketing strategy of tourism enterprises in the mid- 1990s. Consequences of this change on the labor control model employed by capital, on employment and working conditions, on workers’ skills, and on the workers’ response to capital’s increasing pressure are at the center of this study. Besides industrialization, the study argues that in a time of the rise of services and flexible production, capital intensifies and diversifies control over labor while labor continues to resist in various forms within a structurally antagonistic relationship. This study is based on ethnographic research. It incorporates in-depth interviews with service workers as well as participant observation, which included formal employment in one of these holiday villages.