Bonalyn J. Nelsen

The Cultural and Social Challenges of Technical Service Work: Observations from the Field of Automotive Repair Bonalyn J. Nelsen

Service work has traditionally consisted of two basic types: expert (high skill, high status) and non-expert (low skill, low status). This simple dichotomy has profoundly shaped the nature and management of service work, and the manner in which people think about service work and the people who perform it. But with its combination of high skill and low status, technical service work represents a fundamentally new type, one that holds an anomalous place in the social division of labor. This book examines the educational, managerial, and cultural challenges posed by service technicians. Based on a detailed ethnographic analysis of automotive repair, the study identifies the problems experienced by automotive technicians, the people who train and employ them, and the customers who patronize them, as well as successful and unsuccessful strategies for managing the technicians' culturally anomalous nature. This analysis will shed light on the practical and cultural implications of the shift to a service economy, and be useful to scholars and professionals with an interest in technical service work.