Jan Windebank

Dual-Earner Couples in Britain and France: Gender Divisions of Domestic Labour and Parenting Work in different Welfare States

In recent years, much cross-national research on womens work has focused on the impact of the state in creating the conditions to enable women to combine paid work and motherhood. However, when dealing with womens domestic responsibilities, this research has concentrated heavily on caring functions, whilst largely ignoring the importance of other basic household chores. Furthermore, few studies have addressed the question of how state policy concerning women, work and childcare impacts on the ways in which parenting and domestic duties are constructed and distributed between mothers, fathers and others in the everyday experiences of individuals. The present article addresses both of these questions through evidence gathered from a qualitative cross-national comparative study of the child-care strategies of two groups of women, one French and one British, working in secretarial or clerical occupations, living with a partner and with at least one child aged under twelve. Minimal differences concerning the gender division of domestic and parenting work are discovered between these two national groups. This finding is then used to question some of the theoretical perspectives regarding the relationship between womens greater participation in employment and mens greater participation in domestic and parenting work

Reconceptualising paid informal exchange: some lessons from English cities

Most studies of paid informal exchange evaluate its varying magnitude across space and social groups. Little attention, however, has been paid to the variable nature of paid informal exchange. Instead, the unchallenged assumption is that such exchanges are universally conducted under work relations akin to formal employment for profit-motivated purposes. To evaluate critically this dominant conceptualisation of the character of paid informal exchange, empirical research is here reported from lower-income and higher-income neighbourhoods of two English cities. This identifies that although most paid informal exchange in affluent suburbs is conducted under market-like relations for economic gain, this is not the case in lower-income neighbourhoods. Here, such exchange is more undertaken for and by friends, neighbours, and relatives for an array of reasons associated with developing social capital and/or redistribution. We conclude by suggesting that a more socially, culturally, and geographically embedded appreciation of the nature of paid informal exchange is now required alongside a fuller exploration of its implications for policy.

The Uneven Geographies of Informal Economic Activities: A Case Study of Two British Cities

This article explores the uneven geographies of informal economic activities. Drawing upon 511 interviews conducted in higher- and lower-income neighbourhoods of one affluent and one deprived city in Britain, we explore whether the capabilities of households to perform necessary work and household work practices vary across space. We reveal not only the ways in which household work capabilities and practices vary between areas, but also the complex spatial variations in the extent, character and reasons for households participating in self-provisioning, mutual aid and paid informal work. To conclude, we explore the implications of our findings both for understanding uneven development and for policy making.

Beyond Profit-Motivated Exchange: Some Lessons from the Study of Paid Informal Work

The aim of this paper is to evaluate critically whether under a market system, monetary exchange is always and everywhere based on profit-seeking behaviour. To do this, the paper examines paid informal work, a form of work conventionally conceptualized as low-paid employment heavily imbued with profit motivations on the part of both the consumer and supplier. Using structured interviews with 400 households in UK lower-income urban neighbourhoods, however, this paper shows that most paid informal exchange is seldom undertaken by either purchasers or suppliers to achieve maximum money gains. Instead, it is mostly conducted for and by close social relations for reasons associated with redistribution and sociality. In line with recent developments in economic geography associated with the ‘cultural turn/s’, therefore, this paper points not only to the social-embeddedness of paid informal exchange but also to how, at least in these UK lower-income neighbourhoods, the increasing penetration of monetary exchange has not marched hand-in-hand with market relations. In this extensive and growing sphere of monetary exchange, the profit motive is largely absent. Consequently, rather than construing paid informal work as the ultimate manifestation of unbridled profit-motivated capitalism, this paper instead shows such work to be a large alternative economic space within contemporary capitalism where monetary exchange is embedded in alternative social relations, motivations and pricing mechanisms.

Outsourcing women's domestic labour: the Chèque Emploi-Service Universel in France

In France, the Chèque Emploi-Service Universel is the current policy tool with which the state subsidizes and supports the use of paid domestic services by households. Evaluations of this scheme and of its forerunners, the Chèque Emploi-Service and the Titre Emploi-Service, have been very positive both within France and at European Union level. This article questions this conclusion by assessing the extent to which the state-supported outsourcing of womens unpaid domestic labour helps to reduce the work—life conflict and time famine which they face. It demonstrates that the impact of these schemes is marginal both in terms of the range of households which benefit from them and in terms of the amount of relief gained by the women who purchase paid domestic services. Indeed, such schemes are shown to exacerbate the problem of the unequal gender division of domestic labour. This is because they reinforce the gender stereotyping surrounding domestic work by transferring it from more well-off to less well-off women. Consequently, the question of the redistribution of domestic tasks between men and women is side-stepped.

Community Self-Help

List of Tables Introduction Arguments for Self-Help and Mutual Aid Conceptualising Community Self-Help The Extent of Community Self-Help A Route into Employment: Community Self-Help as a Springboard A Complement to the Market and State: Community Self-Help as a Coping Strategy An Alternative to the Market and State: Community Self-Help as Challenge Supporting and Developing Community Self-Help Community Self-Help in Visions of Future Political Organisation References Index

Self-Help and Mutual Aid in Deprived Urban Neighbourhoods: Some Lessons from Southampton

This paper evaluates self-help and mutual aid as tools for tackling social exclusion and promoting social cohesion in deprived urban neighbourhoods. Highlighting the rationales for using self-help and mutual aid to combat social exclusion and cohesion and then drawing upon case-study evidence from a deprived neighbourhood in Southampton to investigate their nature and extent as well as the barriers preventing their usage, it finds that although self-help and mutual aid are crucial and growing components of household work practices, no-earner households are unable to benefit from this work to the same extent as employed households. Consequently, the paper proposes ways in which the barriers that prevent these households from participating in such activities can be overcome.

Public policy innovations: the case of undeclared work

Purpose – For many decades, European national governments sought to stamp out undeclared work using a repressive approach. In the changing economic context of declining employment participation rates, however, the European Commission has called for a new approach to transform undeclared work into declared work. This necessitates public policy innovations. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the degree to which this European Commission call for policy innovation has been adopted by European national governments.Design/methodology/approach – To evaluate this, the results are reported of an e‐survey conducted in 2010 of 104 senior stakeholders from government departments, trade unions and employer organisations in 31 European countries, and 24 follow‐up in‐depth interviews.Findings – The finding is that although European nations have responded to the changing economic context and the resultant call by the European Commission for a new approach by adopting an array of innovative new policy measures to facili...

Acquiring Goods and Services in Lower Income Populations: An Evaluation of Consumer Behaviour and Preferences

Aims to explore the behaviour and preferences of lower income populations when acquiring goods and services. Drawing on empirical evidence from several UK cities, this paper finds that, in the realm of goods acquisition, these consumers want new goods from formal retail outlets but, due to economic necessity, their first option but second choice is often to acquire them informally or second‐hand. In the sphere of consumer services, however, informal modes of provision are frequently preferred by these populations and actively chosen over formal consumer services. The paper concludes by discussing some policy implications of these findings.

Explaining Participation in the Informal Economy: An Institutional Incongruence Perspective

Drawing inspiration from institutional theory, a small sub-stream of literature has proposed that participation in the informal economy arises from the lack of alignment of a society’s formal institutions (i.e. its codified laws and regulations) with its informal institutions (i.e. the norms, values and beliefs of its population). To further advance this explanation, this article reports a 2013 Eurobarometer survey involving 27,563 face-to-face interviews across 28 European countries. The finding is that there is a strong association between the degree to which formal and informal institutions are unaligned and participation in the informal economy. The greater is the asymmetry between the formal and informal institutions, the more likely is participation in the informal economy at the individual-, population group- and country-level. A new policy approach for tackling the informal economy which focuses upon reducing this institutional incongruence is then discussed.