Domestic work in France and Italy: comparative case studies on the contemporary diffusion of informal employment

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Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Volume 6, Issue 1

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Domestic work in France and Italy: comparative case studies on the contemporary diffusion of informal employment

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Author(s): Elisabetta Pernigotti

Publication date (Print): Spring 2012

Journal: Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Publisher: Pluto Journals

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Abstract

The persistence of informal employment and its recent development in Western countries is often disregarded. This article argues that a gendered renewal of informal employment is taking place following global economic restructuring. Furthermore, it shows how informality might be recreated through the very policy initiatives that aimed at combating informality and structuring the highly feminised sector of care and domestic services. In spite of the differences in policy initiatives, qualitative analysis illustrates how the formalisation of these jobs remains partial, in France as in Italy, regardless of the absence or the presence of specific politics of regularisation. Industrial unemployment due to rural deindustrialisation is imposing on working-class women — formerly largely employed in factories — a new form of domesticity through a certain recognition of domestic and care work, between formality, ‘grey work’ and informality, which confines these same women to a universe that is family-based and precarious.

Content

Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.13169

Journal ID (publisher-id): workorgalaboglob

Title: Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN (Print): 1745641X

ISSN (Electronic): 17456428

Publication date (Print): Spring 2012

Volume: 6

Issue: 1

Pages: 49-61

Article

Publisher ID: workorgalaboglob.6.1.0049

DOI: 10.13169/workorgalaboglob.6.1.0049

SO-VID: da658293-ece7-42b1-8aa9-71fa08fc36c7

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History

ScienceOpen disciplines: Sociology,Labor law,Political science,Labor & Demographic economics,Political economics

References

Battagliola, M. (2004) Histoire des femmes , Paris: La Découverte.
Beneria, L. (2003) Gender, Development and Globalization: Economics as if All People Mattered , London: Routledge.
Dussuet A. (2002, 2008) A, Dussuet (2008) 'Genre et mobilisation de la subjectivité dans le travail. L'exemple des services à domicile aux personnes âgées’, D. Linhart D. (ed.), Pourquoi travaillonsnous? , Toulouse: Editions ERES.
Dussuet A., (2002) ‘Le genre de l'emploi de proximité’, Lien Social et Politiques , 47:143–154.
Elson, D. (2010) ‘Commerce international, égalité des sexes et avantage compétitif’, in J. Falquet, H. Hirata, D. Kergoat, B. Labari, N. Le Feuvre & F. Sow, F. (eds.) Le sexe de la mondialisation , Paris: Presses de Sciences Po.
Elson, D., Pearson R. (1981) ‘Nimble fingers make cheap workers’, Feminist Review , n.7: 87–107
Foucault M. (1994) Dits et écrits , vol.1, Paris: Gallimard.
Glucksmann M. (2005) ‘Shifting boundaries: the “total social organisation of labour revisited”’, in J. Parry, R. Taylor, L. Pettinger & M. Glucksmann (eds) The New Sociology of Work , Oxford: Blackwell-Sociological Review.
International Labour Organisation (2002) ‘Decent Work and the Informal Economy’, Session 90, International Labour Organisation: Geneva: 7.
Le Feuvre N., & J. Martin (2001) ‘Les emplois de proximité aux ménages: de la solidarité à la précarité des emplois féminins’, Némésis , 3:299
Letablier A.-M. (1996) ‘L'activité professionnelle des femmes en France sur fond de pénurie d'emplois’, Lien social et Politiques , 36: 93–102.
Massey D. (1997) ‘Industrial Restructuring as Class Restructuring: Production Decentralization and Local Uniqueness’, in L. McDowell & J. Sharp (eds.) Space, Gender, Knowledge , London: Arnold.
McDowell, L. (2001) ‘Father and Ford revisited: gender, class and employment change in the new millennium’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers , 26:448–464.
Pernigotti E. (2010) ‘L'action publique pour le développement de l'emploi dans les services à la personne. Des réformes à l'avantage de qui ?’, Documents de travail du Mage ,15:71–80.
Sarti, R. (2000) Work and Toil. The Breadwinner Ideology and Women's Work in 19^th and 20 ^th Century Italy , Bologna: S.I.P.
Spivak, G. (2009) Les subalternes peuvent-elles parler? Paris: Éditions Amsterdam.
Walby, S. (1997) Gender Transformations , London: Routledge.
Walby, S. (1998) ‘Les figures emblématiques de l'emploi flexible’, M. Maruani (ed.) Les nouvelles frontières de l'inégalités , Paris: La Découverte.

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Battagliola, M. (2004) Histoire des femmes , Paris: La Découverte.

[2] Beneria, L. (2003) Gender, Development and Globalization: Economics as if All People Mattered , London: Routledge.

[3] Dussuet A. (2002, 2008) A, Dussuet (2008) 'Genre et mobilisation de la subjectivité dans le travail. L'exemple des services à domicile aux personnes âgées’, D. Linhart D. (ed.), Pourquoi travaillonsnous? , Toulouse: Editions ERES.

[4] Dussuet A., (2002) ‘Le genre de l'emploi de proximité’, Lien Social et Politiques , 47:143–154.

[5] Elson, D. (2010) ‘Commerce international, égalité des sexes et avantage compétitif’, in J. Falquet, H. Hirata, D. Kergoat, B. Labari, N. Le Feuvre & F. Sow, F. (eds.) Le sexe de la mondialisation , Paris: Presses de Sciences Po.

[6] Elson, D., Pearson R. (1981) ‘Nimble fingers make cheap workers’, Feminist Review , n.7: 87–107

[7] Foucault M. (1994) Dits et écrits , vol.1, Paris: Gallimard.

[8] Glucksmann M. (2005) ‘Shifting boundaries: the “total social organisation of labour revisited”’, in J. Parry, R. Taylor, L. Pettinger & M. Glucksmann (eds) The New Sociology of Work , Oxford: Blackwell-Sociological Review.

[9] International Labour Organisation (2002) ‘Decent Work and the Informal Economy’, Session 90, International Labour Organisation: Geneva: 7.

[10] Le Feuvre N., & J. Martin (2001) ‘Les emplois de proximité aux ménages: de la solidarité à la précarité des emplois féminins’, Némésis , 3:299

[11] Letablier A.-M. (1996) ‘L'activité professionnelle des femmes en France sur fond de pénurie d'emplois’, Lien social et Politiques , 36: 93–102.

[12] Massey D. (1997) ‘Industrial Restructuring as Class Restructuring: Production Decentralization and Local Uniqueness’, in L. McDowell & J. Sharp (eds.) Space, Gender, Knowledge , London: Arnold.

[13] McDowell, L. (2001) ‘Father and Ford revisited: gender, class and employment change in the new millennium’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers , 26:448–464.

[14] Pernigotti E. (2010) ‘L'action publique pour le développement de l'emploi dans les services à la personne. Des réformes à l'avantage de qui ?’, Documents de travail du Mage ,15:71–80.

[15] Sarti, R. (2000) Work and Toil. The Breadwinner Ideology and Women's Work in 19^th and 20 ^th Century Italy , Bologna: S.I.P.

[16] Spivak, G. (2009) Les subalternes peuvent-elles parler? Paris: Éditions Amsterdam.

[17] Walby, S. (1997) Gender Transformations , London: Routledge.

[18] Walby, S. (1998) ‘Les figures emblématiques de l'emploi flexible’, M. Maruani (ed.) Les nouvelles frontières de l'inégalités , Paris: La Découverte.