Personal Trainers and Feudalism with Geraint Harvey of Western University
The Good Gym Guide Podcast • Series 2, Episode 5
This conversation is with Professor Geraint Harvey. Harvey is the DANCAP Private Equity Chair in Human Organization at Western University in Ontario. His research focuses on the employment relationship and the changing nature of work. Back in 2016 he published a paper titled 'Neo-villeiny and the service sector: The case of hyper flexible and precarious work in fitness centres' about the parallels between modern working arrangements of gyms and personal trainers and medieval serfdom.
I was keen to talk with Harvey about this and to ask for his help in imagining alternatives.
If you've listened to the other episodes in the series so far I hope you're as excited as I am to recognise some of the threads that tie the different podcasts together. For example, there's a strong relationship here with with first episode, with Conor Heffernan, that gives even more historical context to the PT / coaching role, to the reimagining of that role in an anti-oppressive in the episode with Justice Williams.
It's so useful to have names for these concepts. Naming something can make it easier to see, and thereby easier to imagine its alternative. How easy that is to enact is another issue really, but I hope that we can bear this in mind as we build our dream gym.
As an example, although many of our founding aims were around providing a better and more accessible exercise environment for our members, one of our four main objectives is to "employ professional class leaders with a fair wage and fair contracts". All of our coaches can become part of the co-operative and have a say in the running of the gym, with all decisions being made for the benefit of both coaches and members.
We have recently started offering small-group personal training sessions from the gym and had a big discussion while setting it up about what the fairest arrangement would be for all stakeholders - the gym, PT, and clients. It was a great opportunity to put this into practice. This was at the same time as introducing the sliding scale pricing model that we have now and it was exciting to think of all of that functioning as a whole. I would love to ramble about the details but won't do that now. Get in touch if you're interested about how we're doing it.
Harvey’s work
Profile at the DAN Department of Management & Organizational Studies, Western University
The original paper on neo-villeiny in the service sector
His most recent article, ‘Gig workers aren’t self-employed – they’re modern-day feudal serfs’
Episode links
Guy Standing ‘The Future of Work: The Precariat’s Challenge’
Marx’s concept of surplus labour
Credits
Thank you to Western University for the photo of Harvey
Most other photographs on this website were taken by Paul Samuel White
Production support by Yas Clarke
Graphic design by Steph Weise