The Hungry Cowboy: Service and Community in a Neighborhood Restaurant

ISBN-10: 1604733462
ISBN-13: 9781604733464
Category: Social Science
Pages: 192
Language: English
Published: 2010-07-07
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
Author: Karla A. Erickson

Description

At a Tex-Mex restaurant in a Minneapolis suburb, customers send Christmas and Hanukkah cards to the restaurant, bring in home-baked treats for the staff, and attend the annual employee party. One customer even posts in the entryway a sign commemorating the life of his dog. Diners and servers alike use the Hungry Cowboy as a place to gather, celebrate, relax, and even mourn. Moments such as these fascinate Karla A. Erickson, who worked for the restaurant, and they make up her new book The Hungry Cowboy. Weaving together narratives from servers, customers, and managers, Erickson explores a type of service work that is deeply embedded in personal relationships and community. Feelings, play, and emotions are inseparable from the market transactions within the restaurant. Based on extensive interviews and two years of working as a waitress, Erickson provides insights into the ways that people make contact in our society and how they build on the fleeting connections in the service exchange to form more intimate relationships. Written for readers, scholars, and students interested in American culture, consumerism, and community, The Hungry Cowboy offers a case study in how consumers and producers in the marketplace perform, and how dignity, meaning, and community can all be built at work.

Get the book

Similar books

EBOOK: The Stata Survival Manual
By David Pevalin, Karen Robson
Timberlake website Another useful website is www.timberlake.co.uk. Timberlake Consultants is a statistical consultancy company that also distributes and ...
Brooks/Cole Empowerment Series: Understanding Generalist Practice
By Karen K. Kirst-Ashman, Grafton H. Hull
Timberlake, E. M., Farber, M. Z., & Sabatino, C. A. (2002). The general method of social work practice (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Timberlake, E. M. ...
The Fashionista Files: Adventures in Four-Inch Heels and Faux Pas
By Karen Robinovitz, Melissa de la Cruz
All Out of Love • Madonna: The Immaculate Collection • Erasure: Circus Justin Timberlake. Justified - - - - - - - - - - * 75% + T H E FAS H ...
Asian Americans Information Directory: A Guide to Organizations, Agencies, Institutions, Programs, Publications, and Services Concerned with Asian American Nationalities and...
By Karen Backus
+ 3590 + Hmong from Laos c / o Assoc . of Hmong in Illinois 4554 N ... Veteran ' s Alliance 1544 Timberlake Rd . St . Paul , MN 55117 Vue Yang , Vice Pres .
Marriage and Cohabitation
By Arland Thornton, William G. Axinn, Yu Xie
... is much higher than in the United States, with the prevalence in France being perhaps the highest (Heuveline and Timberlake 2004; Toulemon 1997).
Native American Verbal Art: Texts and Contexts
By William M. Clements
HENRY TIMBERLAKE'S CHEROKEE WAR SONG 1. That Timberlake's memoir contains the first English translation of the words of a Native American song seems to have ...
Oratory in Native North America
By William M. Clements
But Timberlake seems to have had a bit more literary sensitivity - suggested by his translation of the Cherokee war song in his memoirs - than these earlier ...
Contemporary Urban Sociology
By William G. Flanagan
Timberlake , Michael . 1985. " The World System Perspective and Urbanization . ” In Michael Timberlake ( ed . ) , Urbanization in the World Economy , 3-4 .
The Bhopal Tragedy: Language, Logic, And Politics In The Production Of A Hazard
By William Bogard
The poor tend to live in dwellings that are structurally unsuited to withstand the impact of environmental extremes (Wijkman and Timberlake 1984, pp.
The Archaeological Guide to Iowa
By William E. Whittaker, Lynn M. Alex, Mary De La Garza
To display and share his discoveries, in 1940 Johnson built the Timberlake Museum on his farm. It remained open to the public during the summer and for ...