Introduction to the special issue

Organizing domestic work: The limits of regulations in the wake of the ILO Domestic Workers Convention

Bibliographic Data

ID2262809
AuthorsC Coe (0000-0003-2556-9781, Department of Political Science Carleton University Ottawa Ontario Canada), Alana Lee Glaser (0000-0003-2389-1347, Department of Sociology and Anthropology St. John's University New York New York USA)
Year2024
Volume45
Issue2
Pages59-68
Publication date2024-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnthropology of Work Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0883-024X • E-ISSN: 1548-1417
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/awr.12278
OpenAlexW4406389678
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited56

In 2011, the International Labour Organization adopted a new Domestic Workers Convention, a change that generated struggles internationally around recognizing domestic labor as a form of work. Recognition as a worker is meant to redress the particularities that render the exploitation of domestic workers so intimate, painful, and naturalized. A decade after the Convention's passage is a reasonable period in which to assess its impact, as the papers in the special issue do in a variety of sites. The introduction discusses the limitations of the regulation of work in changing domestic workers' conditions. First, labor studies scholars have shown how contracts can cement inequalities. Second, attempts to standardize domestic labor through work contracts and the law rely on liberalism's supposedly unparalleled capacity to correct historical harms and perfect human relations. Moreover, studies in legal pluralism highlight the ways that informal work is organized according to social conventions. Forms of resistance by domestic workers indicate that they use a sense of rights based both on their status as workers and from other social domains to negotiate employment conditions. This leads us to the conclusion that all forms of energy expended, both paid and unpaid, should be considered forms of work

Employment and Welfare Studies · International Labor and Employment Law · Labor Movements and Unions

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