Drawing on a covert participant observation of a Mediterranean restaurant in Glasgow, this article analyses how practices characteristic of hegemonic masculinity are incorporated by male migrant workers in the process of crafting labour identities. Building on Connell’s (2020) framework of hegemonic masculinity, the researchers found that performances of masculinity operated in a way that, while allowing subjects to feel some degree of power, also ultimately reinforced the individualising pressures promoted by the labour process. It is therefore argued that hegemonic masculinity is critical in providing an avenue through which experiences of exploitation are internalised and naturalised by precarious labour workforces.

About the speakers

Panos Theodoropoulos is a Lecturer at King's College London and an affiliate at the School of Social and Political Sciences of the University of Glasgow. He is also a co-founder, editor, and author at Interregnum. His first book, 'The Precarious Migrant Worker: The Socialisation of Precarity' will be released in spring 2025 through Polity Press.

Sam Lawton-Westerland is a social researcher of sexualities and masculinities. His work applies a range of interdisciplinary perspectives, including sociological, (trans)feminist and queer theories to social problems arising from sexual and gendered inequalities. Sam is a member of Interregnum, a collective that publishes work that imagines a more radical future.