'This book prompts the reader to think of dirt afresh and to enter the world of those who, invisibly, keep our urban spaces clean: the armies of cleaners engaged in an endless battle with filth in shopping malls, office blacks and department stores. Dirt is not an ordinary adversary to these low-paid but not low-skill workers. It can be the source of stigma but also a badge of honour, a Tantalus-like goal out of reach but also a guarantor of a workplace autonomy. Far from draining meaning from their lives, dirt becomes a fountain of meaning. With this book, Costas joins the distinguished company of urban ethnographers whose work liberates their subjects from stifling assumptions and meaningless banalities and lets their stories be heard as they deserve.' Yiannis Gabriel, Visiting Professor at Lund University, Emeritus Professor at University of Bath
