Bryan Boyle and Dieter Vandebroeck are co-winners of the American Sociological Association (ASA) Labor and Labor Movements Section’s Distinguished Scholarly Article Award for their article "The Labor of Distinction: Butlers, Service Work, and the Production of Elite Lifestyles" published in American Sociological Review.
The Labor & Labor Movements Distinguished Scholarly Article Award goes to what is judged by the award committee to be the best article in the sociology of labor unions, the working class or working class movements, work, or the labor process, published between January 1, 2024 and December 31, 2025.
In the paper, the case is made for a new type of labour, termed the ‘labour of distinction’, in order to better elucidate how elite lifestyle practices are supported by the employment of specialised labour power. This is grounded in a case study of the recently revived ‘butler’ profession, drawing from an ‘enactive’ ethnography where Bryan trained and worked as a butler himself in the UK.
The article can be accessed here.
We congratulate Bryan and Dieter on this recognition!
