Abstract
This paper critically examines the hospitable body and how it is put to work, how certain bodies are selected and become associated with certain occupations and spaces of work, and how the hospitable body is produced, transformed, and commodified in accordance with prevailing modes of production. Drawing on examples primarily obtained from the Nordic countries, I review current research on hospitality workers, while also manifesting how employers portray and, at times, exploit the hospitable body. This is followed by a presentation of a research agenda for the continued study of the hospitable body at work, addressing the need for in‐depth, context‐sensitive studies on worker strategies to counteract harassment. I conclude by suggesting that the working body can be theorized as concurrently being relational and “in the making,” and as a bounded territory in need of protection against the hazards of flexible work regimes, stress, harassment, and precariousness.