Mopping up the labour shortage

The privatisation of waste management and gendered work reorganisation

Datos Bibliográficos

ID21189782
AutoresMelanie Samson (0000-0002-8693-6795, York University, autor de correspondencia), Melanie Samson Melanie Samson
Año2008
Volumen2
Número2
Fecha de publicación2008-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaWork Organisation Labour & Globalisation (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1745-641X • E-ISSN: 1745-6428
EditorialPluto Journals (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.13169/workorgalaboglob.2.2.0085
OpenAlexW2332480932
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas10

This article explores the gendered nature of work reorganisation in Johannesburg's privatised Pikitup waste management utility. It establishes that feminist analysis requires an exploration of the historical production of gendered and racialised divisions of labour, the continuities and disjunctures that arise with privatisation, the consequences for men and women workers in the workplace and the home and the effects of men's gendered privileges. Because Pikitup's profit-generating strategy mapped onto a pre-existing gender division of labour, the all-male collection workforce was shielded from labour shortages that resulted in dramatic forms of work reorganisation in the feminised street cleaning sector. Male street cleaning workers experienced the same objective transformations in work organisation as their female counterparts. However, they were less compromised due to the power associated with their masculinity in both the workplace and the home, belying any notion of convergence of experience between male and female workers

Division of labour · Economic growth · Economic shortage · Economics · Labour economics · Masculinity · Political science · Sociology · Workforce · Engineering · Gender Studies · Law · Legal Issues in South Africa · South African History and Culture