Annie Phizacklea

Working at Home: Statistical Evidence for Seven Key Hypotheses

It is frequently suggested that working at home will be the future of work for many people in the UK and that trends in this direction are already well underway. This paper examines these claims by analysing data from the Labour Force Survey which has, at various times, asked questions about the location of work. Seven key hypotheses are identified, including issues surrounding the extent and growth of working at home, reliance on information and communication technology, prevalence of low pay, average pay rates, gender issues, ethnic minority participation and household composition. The results paint a variegated and complex picture which suggests that those who work at home do not comprise a homogeneous group. The paper in particular highlights differences between non-manual and manual workers, and those who work mainly, partially and sometimes at home.

Gender and Transnational Labour Migration

Over the last thirty years the theorization of transnational population movements has taken, I will argue, four main forms; ‘push-pull’ theories which emphasize agency; structural accounts; household strategy theories and the role of social networks in supporting transnational movements. Much of this theorization has taken a very ungendered form and has been largely disconnected from developing debates within feminist theory, particularly those relating to a recognition of difference and diversity within the category of ‘women’, and more generally from social theory. This chapter works through in a gendered way, each of these different models and their relationship (or lack of it) to each other. It begins by considering the context within which these debates are situated.

Class, Race Ethnicity and Political Action

The article considers three potential processes involving the political action or inaction of West Indian and Asian immigrant workers in Britain. Drawing upon both documentary sources and the authors own research it argues that political organization across ethnic minority lines is neither a current reality nor a short-term possibility. In contrast, while members of ethnic minorities engage in class-based forms of political action, they sometimes organize along distinct ethnic lines due to the racial exclusion of white British workers in the industrial sphere. Furthermore, it is likely that such action will be used to bring pressure to bear on the formal sphere of politics when accommodation of ethnic interests is inadequate or fails to occur.

Technological Gradualism and Minority Women: A Case Study of the British and German Clothing Industries

The author describes the technological gradualism in the garment industries of the UK and Germany in the context of their respective policies towards immigration. The presence of ethnic minority women in the UK has slowed down the pace of investment and yet has contributed to the regeneration of certain sections of the fashion industry. In the wake of a new round of microelectronic revolution, the future employment prospects of minority women remain uncertain.