The Unsaid as Expressive and Repressive Political Communication: Examining Slippery Talk About Paid Domestic Labour in Post-apartheid South Africa

2020 ◽  
pp. 283-302
Author(s):  
Amy Jo Murray
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Domestic Labour ◽  
Paid Domestic Labour

Maintaining the Status Quo through Repressed Silences: The Case of Paid Domestic Labour in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Sociology ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 003803852094310
Author(s):  
Amy Jo Murray ◽  
Kevin Durrheim
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Black Worker ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Interview Study ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
The Status ◽  
Domestic Labour ◽  
Paid Domestic Labour

As competent social actors, we individually and collectively leave things unsaid that might threaten to disrupt the status quo. In this article, we outline an understanding of the unsaid and extend its implications to include what we call ‘repressed silences’ or silences about which we do not speak. Drawing on a diary-interview study involving five domestic labour dyads comprised of a white employer and a black worker, we examine silences topicalised by participants, how the unsaid stands in contrast to what could/should have been said and finally how these silences constitute a form of repressed silences. We demonstrate how the topic of paid domestic labour and its labour-related roles, rights and responsibilities are silenced – and the silence itself is not spoken of – among participants, thereby (re)producing the status quo of South Africa’s (racialised) inequalities and hierarchies.

Employing Migrant Domestic Workers in Urban Yemen: A New Form of Social Distinction

Hawwa ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina de Regt
Keyword(s):  
Social Stratification ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Horn Of Africa ◽  
Social Distinction ◽  
Domestic Labour ◽  
New Form ◽  
Paid Domestic Labour ◽  
Middle Class Families ◽  
Migrant Domestic Workers

AbstractThis article argues that employing migrant domestic workers has become a new form of social distinction in urban Yemen. The rapid social, economic and political changes of the past forty years have altered Yemen's system of social stratification. Formerly, one's racial descent and economic background determined the work they performed. Manual and service professions had a very low status and were only performed by the lowest social status groups. Nowadays other forms of social distinction have emerged. Although the economic situation in Yemen has deteriorated since the 1990s, the demand for paid domestic labour has increased. Yemeni women are reluctant to take up paid work as domestics, and middle and upper middle class families in urban areas employ migrant and refugee women, in particular from the Horn of Africa.

scholarly journals The Fight for Land, Water and Dignity in Lindsey Collen’s The Malaria Man and Her Neighbour

2021 ◽  
pp. 63-77
Author(s):  
Felicity Hand ◽  
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Indian Subcontinent ◽  
Class Conflict ◽  
Agricultural Workers ◽  
Access To Water ◽  
Domestic Labour ◽  
Paid Domestic Labour ◽  
Land Water

The novels of South-African born Mauritian writer and activist Lindsey Collen expose a historical continuum of class exploitation, ranging from the slave past of the country including both pre-abolition African slavery together with indentured labour from the Indian subcontinent to post-independence sweat-shop toil, ill-paid domestic labour and exploited agricultural workers. Her latest novel to date, The Malaria Man and Her Neighbours (2010) probes this continuing class conflict and queries mainstream notions of heteronormativity. Access to water and land will be seen to lie behind the murder of the four main characters and the subsequent popular reaction. Collen insists that the underprivileged can become empowered through union, that participation and joint, communal effort can still make a difference.

scholarly journals Political Messages in African Music: Assessing Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Lucky Dube and Alpha Blondy

Humanities ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uche Onyebadi
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Cote D'ivoire ◽  
Côte D’Ivoire ◽  
Political Advertising ◽  
African Music ◽  
Theoretical Underpinning ◽  
Political Messages ◽  
Artistic Works ◽  
Purposive Sample

Political communication inquiry principally investigates institutions such as governments and congress, and processes such as elections and political advertising. This study takes a largely unexplored route: An assessment of political messages embedded in music, with a focus on the artistic works of three male African music icons—Fela Anikulapo-Kuti (Nigeria), Lucky Dube (South Africa), and Alpha Blondy (Côte d’Ivoire). Methodologically, a purposive sample of the lyrics of songs by the musicians was textually analyzed to identify the themes and nuances in their political messaging. Framing was the theoretical underpinning. This study determined that all three musicians were vocal against corruption, citizen marginalization, and a cessation of wars and bloodshed in the continent.

Maid in the Market: Women's Paid Domestic Labour

1997 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 351
Author(s):  
Patricia M. Daenzer ◽  
Wenona Giles ◽  
Sedef Arat-Koc
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Labour ◽  
Paid Domestic Labour
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