The workplace geographies and aesthetic labour of DJs in South East England

Based on in-depth interviewing and shadowing, this paper will explore the workplace geographies and aesthetic labour undertaken by case study DJs working in the South East of England. DJs are an example of labourers where the boundaries between work and non-work spaces, times and identities blur almost unrelentingly. The paper will seek to theorise the workplace geographies of DJs through the lens of aesthetic labour (Warhurst et al, 2000). DJs work through various spaces: of collection and curation; of social networking; of musical performance. In particular, the paper will consider two sites of aesthetic labour: examining how DJs help to create affective atmospheres through their music in places of performance; and highlighting how DJs undertake practices of digital aesthetic labour within the ‘workplace’ of the digital realm.