The rise and rise of clean, white collar (firefighting) work

Australian newspapers, like those in other first-world countries,valorise fire-fighters through images more typically associated with heroic blue-collar 'battlers': sweat, ash, uniforms and firestorms, punctuated with tales of heroic deeds and personal sacrifice. Yet increasingly, much of the work of fire-fighters is associated with the grunt of 'clean work' ' report writing,community engagement, prevention and recovery activities, and so on. This paper considers the changing nature of career firefighters'work in one fire-fighting organisation in Australia, and the rising importance of 'clean' white-collar work to emergency management.