ABSTRACT
From Banff to Bath in the UK, from the Irish Times to the Italian Il Corriere della Sera across Europe, ‘aesthetic labour’ caught the popular imagination when a short research monograph was released in 1999 (see Warhurst, Nickson, Witz, & Cullen, 2000). Aesthetic labour, in different ‘populist’ appellations, continues to feature in the press, has become incorporated into academic textbooks and is filtering into policy debates about vocational education and training and careers guidance in the UK and abroad. The Industrial Society (now the Work Foundation) published a report on it (Warhurst, & Nickson, 2001) and the concept continues to feature in the Work Foundation's commentaries on the future of work and employment, and the development of successful cities (Westwood & Nathan, 2003).
