Being a Camp Counsellor: Emotions at Work

In this chapter, I bring Foucauldian concepts of power-knowledge and governmentality together with the sociology of emotions to illustrate how the delivery of camp shapes the emotion work and experiences of camp counsellors. This chapter discusses three major themes in regard to the emotional demands of "being" a camp counsellor. The first theme considers the precariousness of the assumed happiness of camp employment and the implied need to govern oneself to be happy. The second theme considers the demands of caring that includes the variety and extremes of camper behaviours camp counsellors are expected to face with insight and compassion. The third theme focuses on the social pressures of living in a small and close-knit community. This section closes by considering the ways that nostalgia discourses shape post-camp experiences and memories.