Domestic labor as care and growth in western Kenya

Brown, Hannah

Abstract

Sociological and feminist explorations have tended to see domestic labor as feminized care work linked to the “private” realm of the home. This article explores domestic labor in western Kenya, describing such work as a reproductive and economic project that is carried out strategically through conditions of extreme precarity, as parts of efforts to ensure the growth of the home over time. Analyzing these practices through the lens of care unsettles some core dimensions of the conceptual frameworks commonly used to understand care, in particular assumed contiguities between domestic labor and care work. However, the ethnographic material presented here suggests that broadening our understandings of care can nonetheless provide a useful framework for understanding investments in domestic labor.

Citation

Brown, H. (2020). Domestic labor as care and growth in western Kenya. Anthropology and Humanism, 45(2), 245-254. https://doi.org/10.1111/anhu.12304

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 10, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Nov 22, 2020
• Publication Date: 2020
• Deposit Date: Sep 3, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 22, 2020
• Journal: Anthropology and Humanism
• Print ISSN: 1559-9167
• Electronic ISSN: 1548-1409
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 45
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 245-254
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/anhu.12304
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1262385