Smells, intimate labor and domestic work in Delhi, India
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4364657 |
|---|---|
| Authors | I Dey (0000-0002-5145-1202, South Asian University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 339-350 |
| Publication date | 2021-09-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Senses and Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1745-8927 • E-ISSN: 1745-8935 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/17458927.2021.1981927 |
| OpenAlex | W3207133018 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 22 |
This article stems from an ongoing collaborative ethnographic project with a Delhi-based women workers’ union known as Shehri Mahila Kamgar Union. Since 2015 I have been studying how domestic workers view the relationship between the senses and work. The main objective is to understand how the “senses” in general and smell in particular have been invisibilised in discussions on “intimate labor.” While analyses of the sensory labor and synesthetic reason involved in craftwork and food preparation celebrate sensoriality, the location of smells in intimate labor, especially domestic work, has been occulted. I propose the term “intimate sense-labor” to foreground the study of the acts of erasure of smells that are central to the sensory practice of domestic workers. Intimate sense-labor consists of strictly disciplining the senses and controlling sensory emanations while reproducing the intimate smells of a household through acts of cleaning, washing, and cooking. Building upon everyday work narratives of domestic workers, I expose the workings of “intimate sense-labor” through an examination of the smells of happiness, fear, and disgust
Aesthetics · Anger · Art · Disgust · Emotional labor · Ethnography · Happiness · Narrative · Participant observation · Social science · Sociology · Work (physics · Crafts, Textile, and Design · Emotional Labor in Professions · Engineering · Gender Studies · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Psychology · Social Psychology
Journal of Material Culture
Recognition of the Rights of Domestic Workers in India
The Varieties of sensory experience
Servants of globalization
Maid to Order in Hong Kong
Tasting Ceylon Tea
Sensory labor
The Absence of State Law
Female Employers and their Maids in New Delhi
The Road Cess, Civilizing Missions and the World of the Landholders in Nineteenth-century Bengal
The violence of odors
Introduction toAccounting for Taste
Tasting off-flavors
Everyday Life in Asia
The Hassle of Housework
The Perception of the Environment
Invisible Men
Caste and Gender in the Organisation of Paid Domestic Work in India
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |