C L A R A NE WS 2 6 >- 2 8
OCTOBER
TRIVANDRUM,
2000
INDIA
within a field of limited opportuni ties for other disadvantaged groups. Such developments lead us to re flect on questions regarding the inter play between the past and present; be tween macro and micro-level phe nomena, and between universalities and specificities. How has history played a role in defining the situation of women in the domestic service today? How have globalized life styles and work relations generalized the situation of domestic workers? How can questions that we pose about the contemporary period help us to pose questions that need to be asked about the history of domestic service and tingency, which may be cultural and vice versa? economic at the same time. This workshop is geared to take a These debates are particularly rele closer look at transformations in do vant when discussing general trends mestic service w ithin a longer his occurring in present-day phenomena. torical and transgenerational timeThe last few decades domestic service span. The aim is to discover the con has become part of a new internation nections between the past and pre al division of labour, with women sent, between the global and local from some countries and regions (e.g. expressions o f domestic service; be the Philippines, Sri Lanka) working in tween the intergenerational life sto other Asian countries, in the Middle ries of individual servants and their East, and in Europe. This increased in employers on the one hand, and the ternationalization of domestic service developments in the domestic ser has come about as a result of transfor vice m arket on the other. mations in class relations and the de This demands analyses at different velopments of new lifestyles in an era levels. First of all, what sorts of people in which there is an unprecedented engage in domestic service relations? mobility of people, goods, and images. What is the background of the em The new middle classes have devel ployers and what is that of the domes oped a lifestyle which has increased tic servants? How does this compare the demand for domestic service. The to the generations before and after strata which previously had been a them? ‘Background’ here refers to so source of supply of domestic workers cial, ethnic, geographical, and cultur have gained access to better work, al positioning, and also includes the whereas employment in domestic ser crucial question of how domestic service appears as a promising option
Domestic Service and Mobility: Labour, livelihoods and lifestyles ver the last two decades our un derstanding ofdo mestic service, its changes throughout history, and its links to larger political and economic transformations has been enriched by feminist and histor ical scholarship. It has been argued that one of the root causes of wo men’s subordination was the separation of 'the domestic’ and ‘the public’ do mains which were contemporaneous with the emergence of capitalism. This separation resulted in a situa tion in which anything associated with the domestic became hidden, undervalued, and was perceived as unimportant. However, others have also argued that the boundaries sepa rating the domestic and public spheres may shift in content and form; that it may be associated not only with conduct within the home, but also with the type of work (do mestic) and the type o f people
JANUARY
(women) considered to belong there. Although the implications of the public-private dichotomy at the ideo logical level are considered to be more or less clear, namely the devaluation of women’s work and women’s iden tity, in practice the boundaries sepa rating the domestic and public spheres, it is argued, are less so. Recent research is also more criti cal of explanations regarding those stereotypes and universalities of do mestic service which essentially look towards ideological or cultural fac tors only, perceiving them as mani festations of or as determining eco nomic exigencies. These studies show th at many features which we take to be central and common, such as what constitutes the domestic, the ‘feminine’ nature of domestic service or the sharp division of labour be tween the tasks of men and those of women in the household, are prod ucts o f history and therefore are not impervious to contestation and con
2001
AMSTERDAM,
THE
NETHERLANDS
Asian Workshop on Oral History Training •
•
In September 1999, a workshop on ‘Building Social History Archives in Asia’ was organized at the International Institute o f Social History in Amsterdam. Participants came from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Burma/Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, USA, and Europe. The participants agreed that there is a great need for social historians and political activists to record, collect, and preserve oral sources on the social histo ry o f Asian societies, particularly for the post-colonial period. However, proper training in how to practice oral history is un available to most Asian researchers and activists. The partici pants to the Amsterdam workshop stressed the need to begin providing such training as soon as possible. 0 this end, the Re search Programme on Changing Labour Relations in Asia (CLARA) is organizing the first Asian Workshop on Oral History Training. The workshop will be held in South Asia, and the Pak istan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER, Karachi), the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences (CSSSC, Calcutta), and the Interna tional Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES, Colombo) are involved in the plan ning of the workshop, together with the International Institute of Social
History (IISH, Amsterdam). Dr Ratna Saptari, co-ordinator of CLARA, is the contact person. The aim o f the workshop is to pro vide an introduction to the state of the art of oral history, and its possibil ities and limitations, to researchers from different Asian countries. The workshop includes training seminars in which experienced oral historians work with beginning practitioners. Based on the latest literature, oral his torians from different parts of the world will present their experiences and suggestions, focusing on four as pects:
i. Interview techniques. E.g. how to get people to talk about the past; how to elicit particular pipes of information and emotion; or how to use silences, questions, photographs, sound record ings, etc. to direct the course o f the inter view.
2. Interview situations. E.g. individual orgroup interviews; single or successive interviews; power relations between intervieweefs) and interviewees); ques tions o f gender, class, and language; place and time o f the interview. 3. Recording, preserving, and using oral sources. E.g. the use o f various media (audiocassette, minidisc, video cassette, written notes); how to dupli cate and store them; how to index them and make them available to others; how they can be usedfor consciousness-rais ing, informing a larger audience, etc. 4. Analysing oral sources. E.g. ways o f interpreting; levels o f information in a spoken text; source critique; links be tween oral, visual and written sources.
Organization The workshop will be a three-day meeting in which experienced oral historians (‘trainers’) share their expe riences with beginning oral histori ans from different parts of Asia. The workshop starts from the needs of the beginners as expressed in notes writ ten by them before the workshop, on the basis of their work experiences and on methodological literature pro vided by the organizers o f the work shop. The trainers, who come from different parts of the world, will use these notes to reflect on the four as pects mentioned above, and to offer practical advice. One day will be de voted to practical interview training based on both samples of oral history
General Information Workshop Date: 26 - 28 October 2000
Workshop Venue: Centre for Development Studies,Trivandrum, Kerala, India
Num ber o f participants: Maximum 20
Work schedule: 15 June - Submission o f abstracts 15 September - Submission o f papers
vice is gendered. In linking individu als to families and households, to class and ethnic positions, and to re gional backgrounds, it draws in ques tions about the nature of the house holds involved, how they are struc tured, the relations between the vari ous strata of society, and regional in equalities. Domestic service brings people from very different back grounds together in an often intimate and therefore threatening relation ship. Secondly, how has the nature of do mestic service relations evolved? Do mestic service is a relationship which is both a wage relationship, and at the same time a highly personal one, the content of which is both historically and culturally specific. It undermines the notion of a division between the domestic sphere as private, separate from the public sphere. The ways in which domestic service has evolved is implicated by, and has implications for, the ways in which a division be tween ‘the domestic’ and ‘the public’ is perceived. material (collected by participants) Thirdly, domestic service implies and simulated interview situations. some special sort of mobility. In terms The trainers are selected for their of spatial mobility the question is own work, but also as representatives how various uses of space are related. of active groups of oral historians in At present, domestic service often im various parts of the world. A total of plies a great distance between place of six trainers will be invited. Partici origin and location of employment, pants will be selected from Asian soci and a highly circumscribed use of eties, on the basis of their current and space at the site of employment, with future involvement in oral history. implications for the forms of protec The number of invitees will be be tion available to domestic workers. At tween twelve and eighteen. ■ the same time, domestic service raises questions about social mobility. Does Provisional programme domestic service indeed imply some form of social mobility, even if only 5 January 2001 Morning: for the next generation? Or is it first a. Introductions; and foremost a poverty trap, with the b. Interview techniques absence of mothers leading to fewer Afternoon: chances for their children? How are c. Interview situations; these various forms of access to and d. Training seminar I use of space related, and what are the implications for the forms of protec 6 January 2001 tion available to domestic workers? Morning: Fourthly, the relationship of the e. Recording, oral sources; state to domestic service tends to be f. Preserving and using oral sources very varied. Often one of the least reg Afternoon: g. Training seminar 2; ulated sectors (both because o f the na h. Analysing oral sources ture of the labour relation and the gender of those involved), at times 8 January 2001 state intervention has taken place, Morning: and labour unions and other forms of i. Training seminar 3; organization by domestic workers, j. Training seminar 4 have intervened. As in other sectors, Afternoon: protective measures have often had k. Visit to oral history project; ambiguous effects. ■ l. Concluding session
Contact person: Dr R atna Saptari,
Convenors:
Co-ordinator, Research Programme on
Dr Ratna Saptari (CLARA)
Changing Labour Relations in Asia (CLARA),
E-mail: rsa@iisg.nl
d o International Institute o f Social History,
Dr Annelies AAoors
Cruquiusweg 33, 1019 AT Amsterdam,
(Dept o f Anthropology,
The Netherlands,Tel.: + 31-20-668 5866
University o f Amsterdam)
E-mail: rsa@iisg.nl
E-mail: moors@pscw.uva.nl
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