81 four Child domestic labour: a global concern Jonathan Blagbrough Introduction Child domestic labour is one of the most widespread, exploitative forms of child work in the world today, and one of the most difficult to tackle. Child domestic workers (CDWs) are hard to reach not only because they work behind the closed doors of their employers’ homes, but also because society sees the practice as normal and – in relation to girls – important training for later life (Black, 2002). The practice warrants particular attention because of the conditions under
203 twelve Child domestic labour: fostering in transition? Evelyn Omoike Introduction There is an increasing degree of commercialisation associated with the practice of employing child domestic workers in Africa. As at 2001, there was a record of about 14 million child domestic servants in African cities (Andvig et al, 2001) with some brought across national borders. In 2007, Human Rights Watch recorded domestic work as the largest employment sector for children in Africa, 85% being girls (HRW, 2007). Various policies such as the International Labour
gendered division of domestic labour , European Sociological Review , 21 ( 1 ): 43 – 57 . doi: 10.1093/esr/jci003 Brines , J. ( 1994 ) Economic dependency, gender and the division of labor at home , American Journal of Sociology , 100 : 652 – 88 . doi: 10.1086/230577 Butler , J. ( 2006 ) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity , 2nd edn , New York, NY : Routledge . Carlson , D.L. , Petts , R.J. and Pepin , J.R. ( 2022 ) Changes in US parents’ domestic labor during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic , Sociological
appropriation of women’s domestic labour by the privatized family; the material (under)resourcing of women as mothers; the commodification of the female body and of reproduction by the medical system; and the ownership of expert knowledge about reproduc tion and motherhood. It is not women in patriarchal culture who ‘know’ about motherhood, but health professionals, who in line with their instructed positions construe women as ignorant and culpably resistant to the (supposed) benefits of professionalized medical knowledge. The four women whose voices are heard in this
Most slave trades were abolished during the 19th century yet there remain millions of people in slavery today, amongst them approximately 210 million children in slavery, trafficked, in debt bondage and other forms of forced labour. This groundbreaking book, drawing on experience worldwide, shows how children remain locked in slavery, the ways in which they are exploited and how they can be emancipated. Written for policy and political actors, academics and activists, it reminds us also that all are implicated in modern childhood slavery - as consumers - and need both to understand its causes, and act to stop it.
Modern welfare states are confronted with a wide variety of social and economic developments, including individualization, secularization, globalization and changing preferences and ideologies of citizens. Using in-depth analysis gathered over 15 years, this book closely analyzes the consequences of these significant changes for social policies, offering theoretical and practical insights about their responsiveness.
It includes a comparative analysis of recent developments in social assistance, sheltered work and labour market policies in the Netherlands, showing how policy makers are continually trying to incorporate societal transformations into social policies while being obstructed by the path-dependent development of welfare state institutions. The insights from the case studies are related to developments in other European countries in the areas of social assistance, sheltered work and labour market policies, and show how policy makers and politicians deal with multiple challenges, interests and perspectives on social policies. This book is essential reading for academics and students interested in the institutional development of social policies.
The outsourcing of domestic work in the UK has been steadily rising since the 1970s, but there has been little research into White British women who work as independent providers of cleaning services.
Work, Labour and Cleaning is a cross-cultural analysis based on new research into two particular social contexts, one in the UK and one in India. It argues that outsourced domestic cleaning can be undertaken either as work (using mental and manual skills) or as labour (usually defined as unskilled, ‘natural’ women’s work) depending on the social context and working conditions in which it occurs. The book challenges feminist dogma and popular myths about housework.
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The Gulf is a major global destination for migrant workers, with a majority of these workers coming from South Asia. In this book, a team of international contributors examine the often-overlooked complex governance of this migration corridor.
Going beyond state-centric analysis, the contributors present a multi-layered account of the ‘migration governance complex.’ They offer insights not only into the actors involved in the different components of migration governance, but also into the varying ways of interpreting and explaining the meaning and value of these interactions. Together, they enable readers to better understand migration in this important region, while also providing a model for analyzing global migration governance in practice in different parts of the world.
‘The family’ is a subject of enormous academic, political and popular interest. It is a central feature of most people’s lives, the framework within which other relationships, activities and events take place. This unique study provides important new insights into the dynamics of Britain’s social and economic life - in family structures and relationships; in employment and household incomes; in housing, health and political affiliations.
Most previous research has been limited to measuring an individual or family’s position only at the time of the interview. This book presents a clearer picture by following the important events in people’s lives, such as starting work, getting married, or falling into poverty. It reviews existing findings and presents new analyses of data from the British Household Panel Survey. The same 10,000 adults (in 5,000 households) have been interviewed every year between 1991 and 1997.
Seven years in the lives of British families is a collaboration between members of the University of Essex’s Institute for Social and Economic Research. Each of the authors is an expert in the field, but the work has been presented in an easy-to-read style to make these important research findings widely accessible. The book will be read by policy makers and all with an interest in the dynamics of modern society, as well as by academic sociologists, economists and demographers.
The words ‘precarity’ and ‘precariousness’ are widely used when discussing work, social conditions and experiences. However, there is no consensus on their meaning or how best to use them to explore social changes.
This book shows how scholars have mapped out these notions, offering substantive analyses of issues such as the relationships between precariousness, debt, migration, health and workers’ mobilisations, and how these relationships have changed in the context of COVID-19.
Bringing together an international group of authors from diverse fields, this book offers a distinctive critical perspective on the processes of precarisation, focusing in particular on the European context.
