The consumption of work: representations and interpretations of the meaning of work at a UK university

This paper focuses on representations of the nexus of work, meaning and consumption as experienced by university students. We develop an empirically based argument that the meaning of work is being constructed as an object of consumption on a British university campus. We suggest that this indicates...

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Main Authors: Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Korczynski, Marek, Taylor, Scott
Format: Article
Published: Sage 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46478/
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author Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina
Korczynski, Marek
Taylor, Scott
author_facet Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina
Korczynski, Marek
Taylor, Scott
author_sort Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description This paper focuses on representations of the nexus of work, meaning and consumption as experienced by university students. We develop an empirically based argument that the meaning of work is being constructed as an object of consumption on a British university campus. We suggest that this indicates two key changes in representations of the meaning of work. First, there is a significant shift in the social construction of orientations to work towards what we term ‘consumption of work’. Second, we argue that this new social construction is made up of three dimensions: consumption of an idealised image of work, consumption through specific work processes and consumption of self-development opportunities at work. We conclude by suggesting ways in which this argument could be researched further.
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institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
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publishDate 2017
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spelling nottingham-464782020-05-04T19:11:34Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46478/ The consumption of work: representations and interpretations of the meaning of work at a UK university Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina Korczynski, Marek Taylor, Scott This paper focuses on representations of the nexus of work, meaning and consumption as experienced by university students. We develop an empirically based argument that the meaning of work is being constructed as an object of consumption on a British university campus. We suggest that this indicates two key changes in representations of the meaning of work. First, there is a significant shift in the social construction of orientations to work towards what we term ‘consumption of work’. Second, we argue that this new social construction is made up of three dimensions: consumption of an idealised image of work, consumption through specific work processes and consumption of self-development opportunities at work. We conclude by suggesting ways in which this argument could be researched further. Sage 2017-10-11 Article PeerReviewed Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina, Korczynski, Marek and Taylor, Scott (2017) The consumption of work: representations and interpretations of the meaning of work at a UK university. Organization . ISSN 1461-7323 Consumption Work Meaning Employer branding University http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1350508417734056 doi:10.1177/1350508417734056 doi:10.1177/1350508417734056
spellingShingle Consumption
Work
Meaning
Employer branding
University
Chertkovskaya, Ekaterina
Korczynski, Marek
Taylor, Scott
The consumption of work: representations and interpretations of the meaning of work at a UK university
title The consumption of work: representations and interpretations of the meaning of work at a UK university
title_full The consumption of work: representations and interpretations of the meaning of work at a UK university
title_fullStr The consumption of work: representations and interpretations of the meaning of work at a UK university
title_full_unstemmed The consumption of work: representations and interpretations of the meaning of work at a UK university
title_short The consumption of work: representations and interpretations of the meaning of work at a UK university
title_sort consumption of work: representations and interpretations of the meaning of work at a uk university
topic Consumption
Work
Meaning
Employer branding
University
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46478/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46478/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46478/