So where is the hope? I suspect it might be still in some kind of labor that takes one out of oneself, and that thus the symbolic laborer must come to see as labor what is not "her work."
More or less, in symbolic labor the product of your labor is mainly symbolic rather than mainly sensual-material, for example in manufacturing. The category of symbolic labor tries to identify the commonalities in many occupations that have come to the fore in the so-called "new economy." For example, the service sector, in which the symbolic element is the presentation of a service in affectively, symbolically saturated ways--think of a restaurant and the importance of a server's uniform, personal grooming, setting, etc. All of this is symbolic and covers part of the service sector--that is, the part which is symbolic because it is not deliberately hidden, such as janitorial work, dishwashing, etc. People who manipulate verbal symbols--words--writers, teachers, academics, people in advertising, secretaries--as well as people who manipulate mathematical symbols--the "top side" of the computer industry, excepting things like component manufacture--are all symbolic workers in a more obvious sense. Simply, they're not producing
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