情緒勞動雖廣泛應用在許多研究,但多數僅討論短暫反覆的互動中涉及的單元情緒勞動,也多聚焦在資本主義組織內的剝削性情緒勞動。我以服務外籍配偶的社工員與常民助人者為例,彰顯當代日盛的助人專業中獨特的多元情緒勞動、專業體系如何動員各元素以實現多元情緒勞動,以及其解放意涵實現的過程與限制。研究發現,社工員在服務被污名化的案主的過程中,主要從事三種實作,各有不同類型的情緒勞動:首先,行如所感地展現正向情緒以建立信任關係;其次,為做專業評估而維持情感抽離;再者,為培養案主能力而刻意展現負向情緒。然而,這種協助解放意涵實現的情緒勞動,當落實於基層社工實踐,不但隱然帶著再種族化外配的危險,使服務發放有階級盲點;同時顯示了異化的專業語言在實務運用上的窒礙之處;最後,培力在福利公辦民營化的背景下也可能淪為控制成本的工具,而原專業的助人承諾反弔詭地由遊走體制邊緣、看似無力或無意進行情緒勞動的非專業草根人力來彌補。
Although many investigations on various occupations have been conducted to address the concept of emotional labor, the emphasis has been placed on simple emotional labor practiced by employees exploited under capitalist firms' surveillance and discipline. Little has been done to explain the multidimensional complexity of emotional labor manifested in the helping professions, which must maintain long-term, close relationships with clients; involves subtle emotional management; and has emancipation-facilitating implications. This comparative analysis between social workers and lay helpers in Taiwan aims to fill this empirical gap. Meanwhile, it suggests that the entire professional system orchestrates different tools- including collective-ritual-like seminars, professional knowledge, the institution of supervision, and tempo-spatial segmentation-to facilitate the multidimensional emotional labor. The results show that social workers delivering services to the stigmatized clients of foreign spouses engage in three distinct types of emotional labor: First, social workers must show positive emotions ingenuously; then maintain detached, free-emotion selves for objective judgments; and finally display unpleasant emotions to empower clients. In reality, however, the emancipatory promise of the profession is compromised as follows. Social workers are observed to reracialize foreign spouses and enact a welfare system that prejudices against lower classes; the professional language seems alienating to front-line practitioners; and finally, in the process of privatizing welfare services, social workers are likely to reduce the amount of services in the name of empowerment. Paradoxically, these exhausted professionals turn to lay helpers for ingenuously caring for clients, a group over which the professional system has little control and that seems unable to perform the required emotional labor.