Paradise Laborers

Resorts have become important to American society and its economy; one in eight Americans is now employed by the tourism industry. Yet despite the ubiquity of hotels, little has been written about those who labor there. Drawing on eight years of participant observation and in-depth interviews, the renowned ethnographers Patricia A. Adler and Peter Adler reveal the occupational culture and lifestyles of workers at five luxury Hawaiian resorts.These resorts employ a workforce that is diverse in gender, class, ethnicity, and nationality. Hawaiian resort workers, like those in nearly all resorts, consist of four groups. New immigrants hold difficult and dirty low-status jobs for little pay. Locals provide an authentic Polynesian flavor for guests, a ready pool of youthful high-turnover employees, and a population trapped in a place that offers few occupational alternatives. Managers tend to be middle-class, college-educated young and middle-aged men from the mainland whose lifestyles are occupationally transient. Seekers, mostly young, white, and from the mainland as well, escape to paradise seeking adventure, warmth, extreme sports, or some alternate life experiences.The Adlers describe the work, lives, and careers of these four groups that labor in organizations that never close, with shifts scheduled around the clock and around the year. Paradise Laborers adds to the growing interest in the global flow of labor, as these immigrant workers display different trends in gendered opportunities and mobility than those exhibited by other groups. The authors propose a political economy of tourist labor in which they compare the different expectations and rewards of organizations, employees, and local labor markets.

Adler and Adler's genuine skill as storytellers... really elevates this book to an engaging and compelling read, bringing to life this fascinating milieu. Too often research in the hospitality sector has tended to rely on the managerial voice alone and this book clearly avoids such a trap. Indeed, it takes its place alongside several other crucial works emanating from the United States, where ethnographic study has allowed us a real insight into the working lives of those employed in the hospitality sector., The Adlers, highly published... sociologists, examine the work and lifestyle experiences of staff at five luxury resort hotels along a Hawaiian beach. They interviewed staff from four employee categories: new immigrants and locals, labeled trapped workers; and managers and self-supporting 'seekers' driven by leisure interests, labeled transient workers.... The Adlers... view resorts as postmodern global communities that focus on commercialization.... Recommended. Resort industry practitioners; students and researchers of labor, sociology, and ethnography., For seven years, ethnographers Patricia and Peter Adler made twice-yearly sojourns to a group of resort hotels located in one of Hawaii's popular tourist destinations, intent on mixing business with pleasure. The product of their effort is Paradise Laborers, an insightful and delightfully readable account of the occupational cultures, worker lifestyles, and career patterns featured in these resorts.... Throughout the book, the authors maintain that resort hotels are distinctly postmodern workplaces whose unconventional nature shapes workers' experiences and identities.... Paradise Laborers is a well-written and wonderfully grounded study rich in descriptive detail. The authors' close, long-standing relationships with informants lend the book a degree of intimacy that is often lacking in ethnographic accounts of work and occupations, while its quasi-longitudinal approach allows the reader to follow the experiences of specific informants over time. Although this book will be most useful to readers with an interest in translent labor, service work, and occupational dynamics in the travel and tourism industry, those with a general interest in work and occupations will also find it to be an engaging read., The book is a result of a participant/ethnographic study and the research experience unfolds before the reader making the book an appealing read.... The authors were involved in participant observation in five luxury resorts, with over 500 resort workers and they interviewed 90 workers in-depth. The data provides a rich tapestry to draw inferences from and reveals much about workers' experiences and understanding about their working lives behind the glamorous façade of palm trees and golden beaches., Paradise Laborers... makes a fine contribution to organizations, occupations, and work studies in this first ethnographic study of work culture among resort employees in Hawaii, where tourism is the leading industry.

Patricia A. Adler is Professor of Sociology at the University of Colorado and Peter Adler is Professor of Sociology at the University of Denver. Their many books include Peer Power: Preadolescent Culture and Identity and Backboards and Blackboards: College Athletes and Role Engulfment.