Work, Labour, and Cleaning ― The Social Contexts of Outsourcing Housework

Outsourcing of domestic work in the UK has been steadily rising since the 1970s, but little research has considered White British women working as independent cleaning service-providers. Recent work primarily focuses on migrant workers, particularly in London, a region unrepresentative of the wider United Kingdom. Based on new research in two countries (UK and India) this book argues that outsourced domestic cleaning can either be done as mental and manual skilled work or as manual and ‘natural’ emotional/affective labour, depending on the work conditions. This nuanced cross-cultural analysis of outsourced domestic cleaning offers a fresh perspective on domestic work, as well as its relationship with feminism and the wider field of work by challenging feminist dogmas and popular myths about housework.

Lotika Singha received her doctorate in women’s studies from the University of York. Her research interests centre on social inequalities in everyday life and cross-cultural theories across various population groups.