Services and servants

We live in a service society, and the word service is one we use almost every day. Yet it is a word with many meanings, some of which are directly contradictory, as the author demonstrates in the first part of the book dedicated to the genesis of services in European history – from the biblical conception of service to its embodiment in institutions such as the state or the market. The second part of the book then discusses the structure of contemporary service society. Through a description of the world of servants and services since the beginning of modernity, the author explains why in recent decades we have seen what sociologists describe as the return of servants. Using a wealth of evidence, he shows that the future of services will depend primarily on the evolution of income and wealth inequalities. The only difference is that while in the 19th century a stream of young girls from the countryside provided service to prosperous households, today this role is taken over by female migrants from poorer countries.