Service Encounters: Class, Gender, and the Market for Social Distinction in Urban China (review)

Amy Hanser's Service Encounters is a much-needed exploration of a dominating force in the reproduction of everyday life—the retailer. Often overlooked in theories of consumption and work, the capitalist retailer holds a particularly powerful position as the mediator between customers and manufacturers as well as one of the largest global employers. The retail outlet is the unique site where disparate groups encounter one another and, as Hanser eloquently argues, these interactions structure more than sales figures and fashion trends. This skillful ethnography illustrates the "structure of entitlement" emerging in post-socialist China and transports readers to the down coat counter at the dated Harbin No. X, the cashmere sweater counter at the exclusive Sunshine, and Room 28, Counter 4 at the contested Underground.

Hanser's persuasive argument allows the reader to shed assumptions about the retail sector, though customers used to dealing with American sales clerks may be surprised by the workers' level of reflexivity and interaction. Her argument is centered on her concept of "distinction work," a labor process in which social inequality is reproduced relationally. Hanser's unflinching focus on the processes, interactions and relational qualities involved in service encounters recognizes the complexity of these too often taken-for-granted moments and illuminates how, in practice, the contexts of exchange moments create an interdependent "structure of inequality." Furthermore, the study continues the broadening the conceptualization of class as something "done," as something enacted through the daily reproduction of life, and adds solid empirical evidence of those processes in action.

The connection between gender and "distinction work" is less explicitly developed than the other concepts suggested in the subtitle, yet the relationship between the physical body and work runs steadily throughout the text. The efforts by management at Sunshine to construct an exclusive selling space included the construction of an eloquent workforce and the "distinctive workers" were young, well-disciplined and attractive women. Workers were encouraged to become active participants in the management of their own bodies and, hence, the appropriate presentation of the prestige of their positions. The Underground was both a deviant and devalued workforce populated by young women assumed to be unclassed, uncultured and unworthy of equal access to dignified interactions. The "counter strategy of distinction" allied the goods sold at The Underground with the goods sold at the more exclusive Sunshine located figuratively and literally above them, but often resulted in the reification of their lower status. The freedom of movement of the customers and the workers (bodies) was marked by their physical presentation of self. Whereas the customers could, and did, shop both at The Underground at Harbin No. X, the bodies of the workers were marked by their thick makeup and tight clothing. In other words, doing distinction work in this sense distinguished them through their presentation of self as unequal bodies. The most provocative of the sites unfortunately receives the briefest portrayal, a particularly unfortunate oversight because of Hanser's adept representational skills.

The "mass" character of Harbin No. X, Hanser argues, allowed workers to judge customer's bodies against perceived universal standards, suggesting a cultural if not economic inequality. The distinction work done on the sales floor was the impetus of the workers and centered on the elicitation of trust to quell consumer anxiety, unintentionally instigated through the service interaction. Workers experienced greater levels of autonomy and strategized to re-embed trust into purchasing by focusing on human relations, the embodiment of "service," rather than profits.

The criticisms of Hanser's work are more practical than substantive. First, her main foundational claim, the production and reiteration of a structure of entitlement, would benefit from being woven throughout the text more explicitly. Second, it is ultimately not the customers on whom her gaze alights, but the salesclerks at the various retail stores. The assumptions and conclusions regarding the spectrum of entitlement are drawn mainly by the workers themselves...