‘The door is there!’: The exploitation, domination, consent, and resistance experiences of hotel employees

Abstract

This research is one of the first studies to clarify how employees in the hospitality industry obey or resist to labour exploitation and domination, using Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory. We collected data through semi-structured interviews with tourism employees in Antalya, a major tourist city in Türkiye. The findings show widespread exploitation and domination, with employees often complying due to benefits promised, fear of unemployment, oppres- sion, loyalty, legal shortcomings, and a lack of organised resistance. Nonetheless, they resist through daily practices, categorised as individual or collective, explicit or implicit, and violent or non-violent. This study concludes that obedience and resistance help sustain exploitation and domination in the field. It offers insight that could contribute to liberating individuals by exposing power dynamics and has significant implications for putting into effect true democracy in hotel businesses.