The focus of this dissertation is essentially theoretical, and to do with concepts, assumptions and dualisms relating to 'home'- and 'work'. These are seen as socially constructed concepts in a dialectical relationship with one another; to understand one it is necessary to understand the other. It is argued that the meaning of 'home', in particular, has been largely taken for granted and unquestioned. A method of interpretation, combining hermeneutics with a critical edge, was roughly followed; incorporated within this were the principles of grounded theory that would permit concepts to be developed from data. A theoretical sample that clearly crossed the boundary between home and work - self-employed independents who worked from home - was targeted, resulting in twenty in-depth interviews. The contrasts between (a) an apparent sense of autonomy but lack of legitimacy, and (b) a relatively good work situation but poor market situation were related to the distinction between being in one's own house -and being self-employed - but being seen as 'at home'. There was found to be a contradiction between what were believed to be the generally accepted meanings of 'home' and 'work' and those of the group; whereas the former were not compatible with using home as a place of work, being a contradiction of one another, the latter were. In this situation, strategies such as avoidance of the term 'at home' and a tendency to use 'professional' were evident. A postal survey provided verification and some clarification of these findings. The theoretical analysis draws on the way in which the separation of 'home' from 'work' resulted from a restricted and simplified model of the Industrial Revolution and the Enlightenment emphasis on rationality. Whereas work was associated with rational liberal economic and scientific values which expressed the legitimate Modern paradigm, home remained associated with conservative values and nature - the non-rational.

background

Haven in a Heartless World

Home as a place of work

This paper provides an introduction to the research potential of household panel studies in general and the British Household Panel, in particular. It will discuss the relative strengths of longitudinal and cross‐sectional analysis. Panel studies, however, are only one type of longitudinal design and the advantages and disadvantages of panels are discussed, in comparison to repeated cross sections and retrospective designs. Panel studies have a number of analytical advantages. First they make it possible to distinguish transitory and persistent phenomena, and to disaggregate net change. Second, panel data can help disentangle ambiguities in causal relations by providing temporal ordering. Third, they allow researchers to take into account the timing (in terms of age, or life‐course stage) and the duration of conditions and experiences, both of which are crucial for understanding social continuity and change. Household panels have the additional feature of collecting personal data from each adult ...

Using household panels to study micro‐social change

Education and Family Values

Professionalising motherhood : identity interplay in the co-construction of good motherhood in Singapore

Some demographers are inclined to observe the irony in two themes that are proceeding concurrently and have come to occupy a prime position in their discipline. One research theme has marshalled a good deal of evidence to suggest that an increase of welfare and social insurance by governments or politically constituted agencies not organised around kin-groups has effects that are both demographically and economically advantageous in Third World situations. Such wealth transfers are supposed to reduce both mortality and morbidity and are believed to be especially important in undermining the security value offered to parents in old age by their children (Cain 1983; Potter 1983). However, another focus of research, much of it policy oriented in Developed Economies, and influenced greatly by ideas emanating in North America tends to emphasise the drain upon economic growth and the increasing sense of ‘inter-generational injustice’ that follow from recent age-structural changes. The ageing of the population in such economies is shown to have been caused demographically by increasing longevity and near or sub-replacement rate fertility. These improvements in life expectancy, especially at advanced ages and the falls in family size norms are in their turn viewed as partially attributable to an increasingly pervasive state welfare system which is furthermore, believed to be largely responsible for the demographic developments that increase the numbers of those recipients from, but reduce the contributors to the welfare funds (Ermisch 1983; Lee and Rogers 1987).

Haven in a Heartless World

Citations

Home as a place of work

Using household panels to study micro‐social change

Education and Family Values

Professionalising motherhood : identity interplay in the co-construction of good motherhood in Singapore

Welfare and Management of Demographic Uncertainty

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