This special issue proposes to explore the continuum of globalized domesticities by examining the various social and spatial boundaries that exist between employers and employees across a diversity of work settings. The globalized economy of paid domestic work currently encompasses a multitude of professions (domestic workers, household employees, nannies, drivers, cooks, caregivers, gardeners, butlers, hotel staff, sports coaches, personal development coaches, etc.) situated within diverse social spatialities, ranging from grand bourgeois households to the more modest houses and apartments of the middle class.
The objective of this special issue is to approach the globalized economy of domestic work not just from the standpoint of professions and services, but by considering the varied manifestations of domesticity shaped by diverse social conditions. More specifically, it aims to address the different social and spatial settings within this economy that shape a variety of domesticities at the intersection of power dynamics based on social class, as well as gender, nationality, race, or age. This special issue will enable a reconsideration of globalized domesticities in terms of a continuum of social and physical spaces where power relations inform service and care relationships. It will apprehend this continuum by highlighting the multiple contemporary forms of domesticity while analyzing their interrelations. Domesticities imply vertical hierarchies through supervisors or higher-ranked employees overseeing domestic work. They also present sectoral segmentations along more or less distinctive lines, from yoga instructors to cleaning employees, and exhibit complex forms of employment. These can be characterized by transgenerational loyalty to a single employing family or recourse to formal and informal intermediaries such as recruitment or placement agencies and various online platforms. Furthermore, this issue will emphasize the intersections between compensated domestic roles and unpaid domestic labor, examining both the direct execution of tasks and the management of labor forces —both predominantly carried out by women in heterosexual couples.
This issue aims to consolidate research pertaining to reproductive labor, service professions, and caregiving, with the aim of underscoring the wide range of social and spatial boundaries that define the continuum of globalized domesticities. The theoretical novelty of this approach lies in addressing a plurality of domestic situations involving different professions engaged in service and care relationships (domestic workers, household employees, nannies, drivers, cooks, caregivers, gardeners, butlers, hotel staff, sports coaches, personal development coaches, etc.), often considered separately in the literature.
The call
We invite papers that engage with the above-mentioned themes or those that pose research questions involving research questions that incorporate (but are not limited to):
- The articulation between domestic work and international migration
- Power relationships and domesticities
- Platformization of employment in the domestic labor economy
- Resistance movements among domestic workers
- Hotel spaces and hotel work as outsourced domestic work
We welcome proposals from academics, research students and early-career researchers from a range of disciplines, including (but not limited to): anthropology, labour studies, cultural studies, employment/industrial relations, ethnic/migration studies, gender studies, geography, organisation studies, political economy, political science, science and technology studies, sociology and social policy. Papers may be empirical and/or theoretical in focus and may deploy either qualitative, quantitative or mixed methodologies.
The editors
This special issue will be edited by: Claire Cosquer, University of Lausanne (UNIL), Sébastien Chauvin, University of Lausanne (UNIL), and Julien Debonneville, University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Western Switzerland (HETSL | HES-SO).
Deadline and Guidelines
The deadline for submissions is 30th September, 2024.
Articles should be no longer than 6,000 words (excluding footnotes and bibliography) and submitted in two forms: an anonymised version in which all references to the authors’ institution and publications are omitted; and a full version including the authors’ titles and institutional affiliations. For complete instructions on style, formatting, etc., please consult: https://www.plutojournals.com/wp-content/uploads/WOLG-Instructions-for-Authors2023.pdf
Articles should be submitted to the editor: ursulahuws@analyticapublications.co.uk
Work organisation, labour & globalisation 