Domestic Work in Postcolonial Tanzania

Gender, Learning and Unlearning

Paula Mählck (Stockholm University, Sweden)

$170

Hardback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Bloomsbury Academic
14 November 2024

Migration, immigration & emigration; Gender studies: women; Sociology: work & labour

Domestic Work in Postcolonial Tanzania examines the dynamics of learning domestic and care work within affluent expatriate households, characterized by significant economic privilege and, at times, diplomatic immunity. Paula Mählck employs contemporary narratives from privileged female expatriate employers and Tanzanian domestic workers, colonial documents, analysis of the built space of expatriate households, as well as literary works and analytic autoethnography to investigate the continuities and changes in contemporary employment relations as compared to those during the British colonial era from the 1920s to the 1960s. While the relationship between women employers and domestic workers serves as the entrance of the investigation, the study delves deeper into postcolonial dynamics of learning and their interconnections with gender, race, and class. It emphasizes learning to cope as a dynamic process involving negotiation and movement, offering a nuanced perspective that transcends the victim/survivor dichotomy.

Moreover, the book highlights the subtlety of unlearning oppressive practices and relations, distinguishing them from formal affirmative actions. It underscores unlearning as a means for individuals and collectives to challenge established knowledge, perceptions, and practices, aiming to demonstrate the possibility of change. Through its multifaceted approach, which includes the historicization of alternative narratives, sociological analysis, theoretical discussions on social reproduction, and critical examinations of research methods for Western scholars researching non-Western contexts, this book provides valuable insights into the complexities of domestic work taking place in expatriate households in postcolonial Tanzania. It offers a thought-provoking examination of learning, learning to cope, and unlearning within the context of privilege and power.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by Stockholm University.

By: Paula Mählck (Stockholm University Sweden)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781350277038
ISBN 10: 1350277037
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 14 November 2024
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Acknowledgements Preface Chapter One: Introduction Chapter Two: Tales of the Field Chapter Three: Pedagogies of Unlearning Chapter Four: Historicising Domestic Work Relations in Expatriate Households Chapter Five: Domestic Workers’ Learning, Coping with and Unlearning of Cheapening in the Everyday Chapter Six: Can the Oppressor be Oppressed? References Bibliography Index

Paula Mählck is an Associate Professor of Sociology of Migration and Ethnicity at Stockholm University's Department of Education. She is also an affiliated researcher at the Institute for Research on Migration, Ethnicity and Society (REMESO) at Linköping University.

Reviews for Domestic Work in Postcolonial Tanzania: Gender, Learning and Unlearning

Convincingly arguing that colonial connected histories frame the organization of life/making, Paula Mählck provides us with a carefully thought out, beautifully written, interdisciplinary analysis of how domestic labour is hierarchically and unequally produced in Tanzanian households and its effects on the production of power relations. It would be of interest to everyone interested in how colonial histories embed our current social relations in the most intimate ways of life/making. * Shirin Rai, SOAS, University of London, UK *