TY - JOUR

T1 - Challenging infrastructures of domestic labor

T2 - Implications for labor organizing in Lebanon and Belgium

AU - Maaroufi, Mouna

AU - Loew, Neva

N1 - Corresponding Author E-mail address: maaroufi@leuphana.de https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2111-896X Fakultat Kulturwissenschaften, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Universitätsallee 1, Lüneburg, Germany Supervised by Prof. Manuela Bojadžijev

PY - 2019/12

Y1 - 2019/12

N2 - Domestic labor has always been organized along sexist and exploitative lines. However, the form of reproduction, regulation, and repression of domestic workers has changed significantly over time and therefore entails different struggles and strategies for resistance. By analyzing recent transformations of regimes for domestic labor in Lebanon and Belgium, the article aims at shedding light on continuities, comparisons, and connections between how domestic work is organized around the globe. Both the increasing commodification of the sector and the central role of female migrant workers have reinforced the role of private brokers and agencies organizing the sector in cooperation with the state. Maintaining labor struggles and autonomy of workers requires therefore diverse anti‐racist, feminist, state‐critical, and unconventional approaches in order to react to the logistification and multiplication of domestic labor. The role of traditional unions has been pivotal in the foundation of a union for domestic work in Lebanon and in the introduction of a regulated service voucher system in Belgium. We will argue that the compromises and discourses adopted by the unions have to be critically challenged in order to allow for autonomous, feminist and anti‐capitalist approaches to take the struggles further in swaying a regulatory infrastructure for domestic work toward the interests of workers.

AB - Domestic labor has always been organized along sexist and exploitative lines. However, the form of reproduction, regulation, and repression of domestic workers has changed significantly over time and therefore entails different struggles and strategies for resistance. By analyzing recent transformations of regimes for domestic labor in Lebanon and Belgium, the article aims at shedding light on continuities, comparisons, and connections between how domestic work is organized around the globe. Both the increasing commodification of the sector and the central role of female migrant workers have reinforced the role of private brokers and agencies organizing the sector in cooperation with the state. Maintaining labor struggles and autonomy of workers requires therefore diverse anti‐racist, feminist, state‐critical, and unconventional approaches in order to react to the logistification and multiplication of domestic labor. The role of traditional unions has been pivotal in the foundation of a union for domestic work in Lebanon and in the introduction of a regulated service voucher system in Belgium. We will argue that the compromises and discourses adopted by the unions have to be critically challenged in order to allow for autonomous, feminist and anti‐capitalist approaches to take the struggles further in swaying a regulatory infrastructure for domestic work toward the interests of workers.

KW - Sociology

U2 - 10.1111/wusa.12446

DO - 10.1111/wusa.12446

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 22

SP - 853

EP - 873

JO - Journal of Labor and Society

JF - Journal of Labor and Society

SN - 2471-4607

IS - 4

ER -