Children and adolescents in South Africa find themselves in contexts where experiences of and exposure to violence are prevalent. The experiences of violence often perpetuate feelings of vulnerability among adolescents.Vulnerability means exposure to more risks than peers, which is linked to diminished health and well-being. A plethora of understandings related to the complexities and richness of vulnerability exists within the body of knowledge. Kate Brown (2015) contours these complexities and richness of vulnerability across five subthemes/subtypes, namely, innate, situational, social disadvantage, universal, and risk vulnerability. Brown’s understanding of situational vulnerability is used in this study to examine whether vulnerability, in the context of violence, co-exists with agency among adolescents. The study included a sample of 16 adolescents who were purposefully sampled from two secondary schools in the Western Cape. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews that were guided by vignettes and were analysed using thematic analysis. The themes generated from the data tell the story that vulnerability and agency co-exist in the context of violence for adolescents. Agency is displayed in the capacity to make decisions in difficult situations. The decision-making styles displayed were consultative, evaluative, reflective, and considered decision making when faced with challenging circumstances. The findings extend current discussions around the experiences of vulnerability and agency among children and adolescents.
{"title":"Can vulnerability and agency co-existin the presence of violence?","authors":"Hanzline R. Davids, E. L. Davids","doi":"10.36615/v1ebmn46","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36615/v1ebmn46","url":null,"abstract":"Children and adolescents in South Africa find themselves in contexts where experiences of and exposure to violence are prevalent. The experiences of violence often perpetuate feelings of vulnerability among adolescents.Vulnerability means exposure to more risks than peers, which is linked to diminished health and well-being. A plethora of understandings related to the complexities and richness of vulnerability exists within the body of knowledge. Kate Brown (2015) contours these complexities and richness of vulnerability across five subthemes/subtypes, namely, innate, situational, social disadvantage, universal, and risk vulnerability. Brown’s understanding of situational vulnerability is used in this study to examine whether vulnerability, in the context of violence, co-exists with agency among adolescents. The study included a sample of 16 adolescents who were purposefully sampled from two secondary schools in the Western Cape. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews that were guided by vignettes and were analysed using thematic analysis. The themes generated from the data tell the story that vulnerability and agency co-exist in the context of violence for adolescents. Agency is displayed in the capacity to make decisions in difficult situations. The decision-making styles displayed were consultative, evaluative, reflective, and considered decision making when faced with challenging circumstances. The findings extend current discussions around the experiences of vulnerability and agency among children and adolescents.","PeriodicalId":34673,"journal":{"name":"The Thinker","volume":"17 21","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140083317","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Violence against children is shaped by social norms which are frequently underpinned by faith-related beliefs and values. There isrenewed global recognition of the role of religions in legitimating or challenging harmful attitudes and practices, and this highlights the relevance and influence of faith communities in child protection. Faith communities may also have a unique role to play by engaging spiritual capital and faith mechanisms for positive change. These approaches go beyond an instrumentalised yet importantrole in service provision alone, to also transform harmful beliefs and offer positive alternatives grounded in faith mandates. This article draws on insights from a 2019 scoping study that explored positive and negative beliefs across multiple faith traditions that shape the perpetration, justification, or engagement to end violence against children. The study included three research components: a literature review, a case study submission process, and key informant interviews with experts on child violence working with diverse faith communities. Its findings show many ways in which religion’s spiritual capital can either help place children at society’s centre or can support harmful hierarchies of power that enable violence against children and seek to resist positive change.
{"title":"Engaging the Mechanisms of Faith?","authors":"Selina Palm, C. Eyber","doi":"10.36615/v822ks38","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36615/v822ks38","url":null,"abstract":"Violence against children is shaped by social norms which are frequently underpinned by faith-related beliefs and values. There isrenewed global recognition of the role of religions in legitimating or challenging harmful attitudes and practices, and this highlights the relevance and influence of faith communities in child protection. Faith communities may also have a unique role to play by engaging spiritual capital and faith mechanisms for positive change. These approaches go beyond an instrumentalised yet importantrole in service provision alone, to also transform harmful beliefs and offer positive alternatives grounded in faith mandates. This article draws on insights from a 2019 scoping study that explored positive and negative beliefs across multiple faith traditions that shape the perpetration, justification, or engagement to end violence against children. The study included three research components: a literature review, a case study submission process, and key informant interviews with experts on child violence working with diverse faith communities. Its findings show many ways in which religion’s spiritual capital can either help place children at society’s centre or can support harmful hierarchies of power that enable violence against children and seek to resist positive change.","PeriodicalId":34673,"journal":{"name":"The Thinker","volume":"52 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140085966","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Objective: This article presents the results of a case study conducted at a Child and Youth Care Centre (CYCC) in Pretoria, South Africa, on social service practitioners’ (SSP) views of the support services provided by a CYCC to adolescent witnesses of domestic violence. These support services are explored in terms of four inter-dependent levels including the micro, meso, exo and macro levels of the Ecological Theory, as described by Bronfenbrenner (1979).Method: For this study, a qualitative holistic case study design was adopted. This single case study design was chosen as information was gathered from various sources in only one CYCC. Information was triangulated by using various sources of data, that is interviews with SSPs and the children, as well as the policies of the CYCC regarding services offered for children who have witnessed domestic violence.Results: This study revealed that there are no specialised services at the identified CYCC to support adolescent witnesses of domestic violence. The services that are available seem to be generic and aimed at addressing problem behaviours in children and adolescents, rather than providing proactive, therapeutic support to deal with trauma such as witnessing physical and verbal domestic violence in their home of origin.
{"title":"Support Services Provided by a Child and Youth Care Centre (CYCC) to Adolescent Witnesses of Domestic Violence","authors":"Shahana Rasool, Suzanne Swart","doi":"10.36615/w5t3xk96","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36615/w5t3xk96","url":null,"abstract":"Objective: This article presents the results of a case study conducted at a Child and Youth Care Centre (CYCC) in Pretoria, South Africa, on social service practitioners’ (SSP) views of the support services provided by a CYCC to adolescent witnesses of domestic violence. These support services are explored in terms of four inter-dependent levels including the micro, meso, exo and macro levels of the Ecological Theory, as described by Bronfenbrenner (1979).Method: For this study, a qualitative holistic case study design was adopted. This single case study design was chosen as information was gathered from various sources in only one CYCC. Information was triangulated by using various sources of data, that is interviews with SSPs and the children, as well as the policies of the CYCC regarding services offered for children who have witnessed domestic violence.Results: This study revealed that there are no specialised services at the identified CYCC to support adolescent witnesses of domestic violence. The services that are available seem to be generic and aimed at addressing problem behaviours in children and adolescents, rather than providing proactive, therapeutic support to deal with trauma such as witnessing physical and verbal domestic violence in their home of origin.","PeriodicalId":34673,"journal":{"name":"The Thinker","volume":"29 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140083148","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Violence against children (VAC) is a global phenomenon that needs deliberate attention. Children exposed to violence in their families, communities, and schools in their early years are likely to maintain this cycle of violence in their youth and adult lives if no efforts are made to break this cycle. Taking this into consideration the author adopts a social-ecological theoretical perspective in exploring global, regional, and South African literature on the risks and causes of VAC as well as the protective factors that can prevent VAC. Embedding VAC within a social-ecological perspective warrants the need to explore it at four crucial levels, namely individual, relationships, community, and society. The literature review embodies the relevance of these four levels since all risk and causal factors of VAC are easily categorised in one or more of these levels. As such, the author provides a social-ecological perspective comprising all four levels that holistically address the prevention of VAC. The literature review indicated that many of the risks and causes of VAC are a common trend across countries even though it is more prevalent within African contexts. This suggests that the preventive measures discussed are likely to have global value.
{"title":"Violence Against Children","authors":"Jace Pillay","doi":"10.36615/6xeqgt72","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36615/6xeqgt72","url":null,"abstract":"Violence against children (VAC) is a global phenomenon that needs deliberate attention. Children exposed to violence in their families, communities, and schools in their early years are likely to maintain this cycle of violence in their youth and adult lives if no efforts are made to break this cycle. Taking this into consideration the author adopts a social-ecological theoretical perspective in exploring global, regional, and South African literature on the risks and causes of VAC as well as the protective factors that can prevent VAC. Embedding VAC within a social-ecological perspective warrants the need to explore it at four crucial levels, namely individual, relationships, community, and society. The literature review embodies the relevance of these four levels since all risk and causal factors of VAC are easily categorised in one or more of these levels. As such, the author provides a social-ecological perspective comprising all four levels that holistically address the prevention of VAC. The literature review indicated that many of the risks and causes of VAC are a common trend across countries even though it is more prevalent within African contexts. This suggests that the preventive measures discussed are likely to have global value.","PeriodicalId":34673,"journal":{"name":"The Thinker","volume":" September","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140092867","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
hile theoretical approaches attempt to map ancient childhood, the material and incidental nature of children’s lives in all their varieties and differences, are crucial for understanding ancient childhood. Recent investigations into children in their living environments have shown attention to their clothing, childhood care, social relations, leisure and play, health and disability, upbringing and schooling, and their experiences of death. Children’s lives and activities were framed also by the agonistic nature of first-century society, makingthem susceptible to structural violence in various ways. The purpose of the paper is to track and trace children’s experience and in particular their agency in the ancient Roman world that were often hostile to little lives and bodies, and to consider the value of such studies for the interpretation of the New Testament.
{"title":"Children’s Lives and Agency in the Agonistic First Century and New Testament Studies","authors":"Jeremy Punt","doi":"10.36615/s85k1d71","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36615/s85k1d71","url":null,"abstract":"hile theoretical approaches attempt to map ancient childhood, the material and incidental nature of children’s lives in all their varieties and differences, are crucial for understanding ancient childhood. Recent investigations into children in their living environments have shown attention to their clothing, childhood care, social relations, leisure and play, health and disability, upbringing and schooling, and their experiences of death. Children’s lives and activities were framed also by the agonistic nature of first-century society, makingthem susceptible to structural violence in various ways. The purpose of the paper is to track and trace children’s experience and in particular their agency in the ancient Roman world that were often hostile to little lives and bodies, and to consider the value of such studies for the interpretation of the New Testament.","PeriodicalId":34673,"journal":{"name":"The Thinker","volume":"121 51","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140087994","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In contemporary society, the status of children as fully human is often contested and/or not accepted. The idea that children are not fully human has resulted in a plethora of abuses, including the denial of children’s rights, voices, and agency both in biblical texts and in contemporary society. Notwithstanding, scholars like Marcia Bunge acknowledge that in the Judeo-Christian bible “infants and children are also whole and complete human beings made in the image of God” (2012:65). Many times, the ways in which children are treated in biblical texts (in so far as adults make decisions without their (children) approval, e.g., Abraham’s decision to sacrifice Isaac, Jephthah’s decision to kill her daughter in honour of his agreement with Yahweh, the killing of the boy children during the time of Pharoah and King Herod exhibit the idea that children are not fully human. Since Christians rely on the Bible for inspiration and conduct in both private and public life, it is necessary to study the ways in which children were treated in biblical times. Until recently, biblical scholars did not have much of a deliberate focus on studying children and how they are treated in the Bible.
{"title":"“Ikwekwe yinja1 (a Boy is a Dog)”","authors":"Zukile Ngqeza","doi":"10.36615/7k1d7q12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36615/7k1d7q12","url":null,"abstract":"In contemporary society, the status of children as fully human is often contested and/or not accepted. The idea that children are not fully human has resulted in a plethora of abuses, including the denial of children’s rights, voices, and agency both in biblical texts and in contemporary society. Notwithstanding, scholars like Marcia Bunge acknowledge that in the Judeo-Christian bible “infants and children are also whole and complete human beings made in the image of God” (2012:65). Many times, the ways in which children are treated in biblical texts (in so far as adults make decisions without their (children) approval, e.g., Abraham’s decision to sacrifice Isaac, Jephthah’s decision to kill her daughter in honour of his agreement with Yahweh, the killing of the boy children during the time of Pharoah and King Herod exhibit the idea that children are not fully human. Since Christians rely on the Bible for inspiration and conduct in both private and public life, it is necessary to study the ways in which children were treated in biblical times. Until recently, biblical scholars did not have much of a deliberate focus on studying children and how they are treated in the Bible.","PeriodicalId":34673,"journal":{"name":"The Thinker","volume":"69 24","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140085164","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The views held about the humanity of children influence faith praxis with regard to children. Recognizing the full humanity of children will help pose questions that will lead to critical reflections on theories and practices thatunderpin the lived realities of neglect, abuse and violence against children. It is said that a faulty anthropology produces a faulty theology, and a faulty theology produces a skewed anthropology. It is argued that views of children that harm them in daily life could be connected with views of Godas authoritative, hierarchal, powerful and strong, a God who punishes and disciplines. There is, therefore, the need to explicate a Christian view ofchildren that honours the dignity and humanity of children and could result in faith practices that are liberating. The Trinity could serve as a framework for a theological anthropology of children. The paper explores insights from key scholars such as Miroslav Volf (1998), Jürgen Moltmann (1991) and Catherine LaCugna (1991) on a relational view of the Trinity to glean resources that could influence a theological understanding of the personhood of children: resources which recognise the full humanity of children and honour their dignity, and interdependence as well as mutuality in faith communities and society. The paper posits that a relational view of the Trinity could provide a sounder foundation for a deeply relational and non-hierarchical Christian view of children that arehonouring, and therefore, promotes faith praxis that is liberating and encourages flourishing.
{"title":"Honouring Children","authors":"Ebenezer Tetteh Kpalam","doi":"10.36615/4rncxc37","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36615/4rncxc37","url":null,"abstract":"The views held about the humanity of children influence faith praxis with regard to children. Recognizing the full humanity of children will help pose questions that will lead to critical reflections on theories and practices thatunderpin the lived realities of neglect, abuse and violence against children. It is said that a faulty anthropology produces a faulty theology, and a faulty theology produces a skewed anthropology. It is argued that views of children that harm them in daily life could be connected with views of Godas authoritative, hierarchal, powerful and strong, a God who punishes and disciplines. There is, therefore, the need to explicate a Christian view ofchildren that honours the dignity and humanity of children and could result in faith practices that are liberating. The Trinity could serve as a framework for a theological anthropology of children. The paper explores insights from key scholars such as Miroslav Volf (1998), Jürgen Moltmann (1991) and Catherine LaCugna (1991) on a relational view of the Trinity to glean resources that could influence a theological understanding of the personhood of children: resources which recognise the full humanity of children and honour their dignity, and interdependence as well as mutuality in faith communities and society. The paper posits that a relational view of the Trinity could provide a sounder foundation for a deeply relational and non-hierarchical Christian view of children that arehonouring, and therefore, promotes faith praxis that is liberating and encourages flourishing.","PeriodicalId":34673,"journal":{"name":"The Thinker","volume":"3 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140092851","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-28DOI: 10.36615/the_thinker.v96i3.2672
Candice James, Fairuz Mullagee, Abigail Osiki
After decades of deliberate exclusion from labour laws and social protection in South Africa, domestic workers have slowly been able to taste the fruits of years of laborious fights for recognition, inclusion, and dignity. On 19 November 2020, the Constitutional Court ordered the inclusion of domestic workers in the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA). This marked another victory for domestic workers. Textual inclusion is a relatively easier feat compared to the real challenge of implementation to give effect to such inclusion. The monitoring of implementation and progress of domestic workers who have benefitted from this inclusion has been relatively underexplored. This study explores the progress made in the development of social protection followingthe recent inclusion of domestic workers in COIDA, together with the implementation of this law. The article uses desktop research to investigate barriers to the development and implementation of social protection in the domestic work sector. The article highlights the importance of multi-stakeholder collaboration, clear policies from the Department of Labour, and the provision of constructive support for employers in the domestic work sector to facilitate compliance with COIDA.
{"title":"Domestic Workers in South Africa","authors":"Candice James, Fairuz Mullagee, Abigail Osiki","doi":"10.36615/the_thinker.v96i3.2672","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36615/the_thinker.v96i3.2672","url":null,"abstract":"After decades of deliberate exclusion from labour laws and social protection in South Africa, domestic workers have slowly been able to taste the fruits of years of laborious fights for recognition, inclusion, and dignity. On 19 November 2020, the Constitutional Court ordered the inclusion of domestic workers in the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA). This marked another victory for domestic workers. Textual inclusion is a relatively easier feat compared to the real challenge of implementation to give effect to such inclusion. The monitoring of implementation and progress of domestic workers who have benefitted from this inclusion has been relatively underexplored. This study explores the progress made in the development of social protection followingthe recent inclusion of domestic workers in COIDA, together with the implementation of this law. The article uses desktop research to investigate barriers to the development and implementation of social protection in the domestic work sector. The article highlights the importance of multi-stakeholder collaboration, clear policies from the Department of Labour, and the provision of constructive support for employers in the domestic work sector to facilitate compliance with COIDA.","PeriodicalId":34673,"journal":{"name":"The Thinker","volume":"39 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91091412","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-28DOI: 10.36615/the_thinker.v96i3.2674
Bianca Tame, Zukiswa Zanazo
This article explores domestic workers’ experiences of ‘lockdown work’, which refers to working conditions during the level 5 to level 3 lockdown period in South Africa during the Covid-19 pandemic. Drawing on in-depth interviews with female black African South African and African migrant domestic workers from Zimbabwe and Malawi, the article provides crucial insights into how the pandemic altered existing working conditions and employment relationships. We use the sociological concept ‘boundary work’ to illustrate the relational dynamic and consequence of social and physical distancing during the pandemic. We argue that social and physical distancing deepened the public-private divide in employers’ private households and domestic workers’ intimate workplaces. The findings show that domestic workers experienced limited or no control over decisions regarding Covid-19-related protocols in their workplace, intensified workloads without additional remuneration, and felt voiceless regarding working conditions because they feared losing their jobs. The experience of lockdown work highlighted domestic workers’ vulnerability because of the asymmetrical and intimate nature of domestic work under new management imperatives that positioned most domestic workers as a high-risk group or perceived carriers of Covid-19. We conclude that the experience of personalism/maternalism and distant hierarchy as forms of boundary work undermined domestic workers’ sense of dignity and employment rights.
{"title":"‘Lockdown Work’","authors":"Bianca Tame, Zukiswa Zanazo","doi":"10.36615/the_thinker.v96i3.2674","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36615/the_thinker.v96i3.2674","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores domestic workers’ experiences of ‘lockdown work’, which refers to working conditions during the level 5 to level 3 lockdown period in South Africa during the Covid-19 pandemic. Drawing on in-depth interviews with female black African South African and African migrant domestic workers from Zimbabwe and Malawi, the article provides crucial insights into how the pandemic altered existing working conditions and employment relationships. We use the sociological concept ‘boundary work’ to illustrate the relational dynamic and consequence of social and physical distancing during the pandemic. We argue that social and physical distancing deepened the public-private divide in employers’ private households and domestic workers’ intimate workplaces. The findings show that domestic workers experienced limited or no control over decisions regarding Covid-19-related protocols in their workplace, intensified workloads without additional remuneration, and felt voiceless regarding working conditions because they feared losing their jobs. The experience of lockdown work highlighted domestic workers’ vulnerability because of the asymmetrical and intimate nature of domestic work under new management imperatives that positioned most domestic workers as a high-risk group or perceived carriers of Covid-19. We conclude that the experience of personalism/maternalism and distant hierarchy as forms of boundary work undermined domestic workers’ sense of dignity and employment rights.","PeriodicalId":34673,"journal":{"name":"The Thinker","volume":"71 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85310235","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-08-28DOI: 10.36615/the_thinker.v96i3.2673
V. Gama
Historically, scholarship on domestic work in Africa has characterised the sector as oppressive. As an integral part of the oppressive nature of the domestic work domain, this article investigates the contradictions associated with the admirable act of employers paying their domestic workers more than recommended minimum wage in Eswatini. Previously known as Swaziland, Eswatini is a small, interlocked country between South Africa and Mozambique. The country’s recommended minimum wage for domestic workers is E 1,246.00 (USD 73.20) per month. Interviews were conducted among ten live-in domestic workers from Tubungu, Eswatini, who earn E 3,500 (USD 205.63) or more per month. This article relies on in-depth interviews to establish the dynamics at work in this act of constructive remuneration. The study’s findings challenge the assumption that higher paid wages in the domestic sector are always a well-intentioned and successful achievement of one aspect of the ‘decent work’ agenda. Findings show that higher wages subtly increase domestic workers’ tolerance of employers’ disregard of other working conditions. This is at the expense of the domestic workers’ well-being and pacifiers their ability to challenge their employers about other working conditions as their entitlement. The study shows how both liberating and oppressive experiences, not just oppression, coexist within the domestic work landscape in Eswatini. This points to an interesting ambiguity in the domestic work field. Finally, the study shows how these contradictory oppressive and liberatory experiences both inform and sustain domestic work in the country. This is in a context where women are part of a labour market with high unemployment, with domestic work being a convenient source of employment for less-skilled labour.
{"title":"The Pacifying Power of Wages in the Domestic Work Domain","authors":"V. Gama","doi":"10.36615/the_thinker.v96i3.2673","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36615/the_thinker.v96i3.2673","url":null,"abstract":"Historically, scholarship on domestic work in Africa has characterised the sector as oppressive. As an integral part of the oppressive nature of the domestic work domain, this article investigates the contradictions associated with the admirable act of employers paying their domestic workers more than recommended minimum wage in Eswatini. Previously known as Swaziland, Eswatini is a small, interlocked country between South Africa and Mozambique. The country’s recommended minimum wage for domestic workers is E 1,246.00 (USD 73.20) per month. Interviews were conducted among ten live-in domestic workers from Tubungu, Eswatini, who earn E 3,500 (USD 205.63) or more per month. This article relies on in-depth interviews to establish the dynamics at work in this act of constructive remuneration. The study’s findings challenge the assumption that higher paid wages in the domestic sector are always a well-intentioned and successful achievement of one aspect of the ‘decent work’ agenda. Findings show that higher wages subtly increase domestic workers’ tolerance of employers’ disregard of other working conditions. This is at the expense of the domestic workers’ well-being and pacifiers their ability to challenge their employers about other working conditions as their entitlement. The study shows how both liberating and oppressive experiences, not just oppression, coexist within the domestic work landscape in Eswatini. This points to an interesting ambiguity in the domestic work field. Finally, the study shows how these contradictory oppressive and liberatory experiences both inform and sustain domestic work in the country. This is in a context where women are part of a labour market with high unemployment, with domestic work being a convenient source of employment for less-skilled labour.","PeriodicalId":34673,"journal":{"name":"The Thinker","volume":"88 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75913809","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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