Doctoral Dissertation Research: New Urban Geographies of Domestic Work

本博士论文改进项目将研究21世纪有偿家务劳动的时空组织变化。今天，与过去的住家安排不同，家务工作更有可能由经常住得离雇主很远的日工来做。这种就业安排的转变代表了该部门的重大时空重组，因为工人的日常通勤现在可能会随着他们每天和每周的工作时间、为他们工作的雇主的数量以及与他们每个人互动的时间而变化。该项目将通过推进城市地理学和工作地理学的理论，以及促进社会科学对微观和宏观流动模式的研究兴趣，来考虑这种重组的意义。本项目侧重于国内就业关系，但其研究结果将有助于正在进行的概念重塑，以更好地理解21世纪日益以服务为导向、不安全、空间碎片化的劳动、工作和就业。作为博士论文研究进步奖，该项目将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个独立的研究生涯。该项目密切关注有偿家务劳动日益增加的空间和时间碎片化及其对工人、雇主和更广泛社会的意义。本项目主要围绕以下问题展开：(1)有偿家务劳动的时空重组如何影响家庭佣工和雇主的日常生活，尤其是家庭组织和管理策略？(2)这些时空变化对a)家庭雇佣关系和b)家庭工人组织努力争取更好的工作条件有什么影响？(3)与雇主-雇员关系和有偿家务劳动在社会中的地位相关的长期社会关系如何随着该部门的重组而发生变化？这些研究问题将通过一种混合方法来回答，包括对国内就业招聘信息和新闻媒体来源的内容分析、对政府数据的描述性数据分析、对工会活动的参与性观察、对工会领导人的关键信息者访谈以及对国内工人和雇主的深度访谈。对工人的采访将包括时间日记的收集，以发展时空路径，作为理解这种日益分散的工作的生活经验的一种方式。这项研究将在巴西调查这些问题，但也将适用于家务劳动也是经济重要组成部分的其他情况。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This doctoral dissertation improvement project will examine the shifting spatio-temporal organization of paid domestic work in the 21st century. Today, in contrast to past live-in arrangements, domestic work is much more likely to be performed by day workers who often live far away from their employers. This shift in employment arrangement represents a significant spatio-temporal reorganization of the sector as workers' daily commutes might now vary, along with their daily and weekly working hours, the number of employers for whom they work, and time spent interacting with each of them. This project will consider the significance of this reorganization by advancing theories in urban geography and the geographies of work, as well as contributing to renewed social science research interest in the micro and macro patterns of mobility. This project focuses on the domestic employment relationship, but the findings will contribute to the ongoing reformulation of concepts to better understand labor, work, and employment in the 21st century that is increasingly service-oriented, insecure, and spatially fragmented. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this project will provide support to enable a promising student to establish an independent research career.This project pays close attention to the increasing spatial and temporal fragmentation of paid domestic work and its significance for workers, employers, and wider society. The project is centered on the following questions: (1) How has the spatio-temporal reorganization of paid domestic work impacted the daily lives of domestic workers and employers, particularly the household organization and management strategies of each? (2) What are the implications of these spatio-temporal changes for: a) the domestic employment relationship, and b) domestic worker organizing efforts for better working conditions? (3) How might longstanding social relations associated with the employer-employee relationship and the place of paid domestic work in society be changing in response to the reorganization of the sector? These research questions will be answered through a mixed methods approach including content analysis of domestic employment job postings and news media sources, descriptive data analysis of government data, participant observation of union activities, key informant interviews with union leaders, and in-depth interviews with domestic workers and employers. Interviews with workers will include the collection of time-diaries to develop time-space paths as a way of understanding the lived experience of navigating this increasingly fragmented work. The study will investigate these questions in Brazil but will be translatable to other contexts where domestic work is also a significant part of the economy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.