Paper short abstract:

Through a study of urban private security guards, this paper discusses new forms of urban informality and work culture in post-liberalisation India, and addresses analytical issues germane to our understanding of emerging labour regimes and workers’ perceptions of class and social relations.

Paper long abstract:

Through a study of urban private security guards, this paper discusses new forms of urban informality and work culture in post-liberalisation India, and addresses analytical issues germane to our understanding of emerging labour regimes and workers' perceptions of class and social relations. Private security services have emerged as one of the fastest growing generators of employment, responding to a heightened need for protection and surveillance, with which the state's law and order machinery is unable to cope. Moreover, India's consumer revolution and recent urbanisation have been marked by a phenomenal expansion of the interactive service sector and of privately owned or managed spaces for public purpose. The maintenance of safety and security of the owners and users of such 'mass private spaces' has led to an immense surge in private security services. A new cadre of low-paid, casual, contract labour has emerged, who work under a regime of organised informality, with recruitment, placement and training being increasingly systematically institutionalised and formalised by private employment agencies, with the imprimatur of the state. The paper also explores aspects of embodied work and emotional labour that characterise the interactive service sector. Workers' body and emotions are now key to workplace performance, that demands direct social interaction with customers and clients. This paper argues that workers' perceptions of class difference and identity are now increasingly shaped at the workplace through cultural and social exchange between workers and consumers of services, and are not determined by employment relations, nor politically constructed through collective action.