The specificities of domestic work in relation to the workplace alongside the intersections of gender, class, and caste indicate a complex picture in India. Though domestic workers have become a significant workforce in all large cities and even in small towns, not much information on the specificity and complexity of the sector and its challenges is available. The papers in this volume address interesting dimensions of the domestic work section, including exclusion of domestic workers, the reluctance and discomfort in accepting domestic workers as "workers," alternative approaches to unionizing and the specific experiences in organizing taking up the challenge of negotiating personal relations, and the specificities of work. A critical analysis of state policies and regulation of domestic work alongside specific issues of legal intervention is also attempted in this collection--both specific to existing legislation as well as in the broad framework of labor as well as women's rights. This study emphasizes the need to locate undervaluation and poor status of domestic workers in the devaluation of house work within capitalist development, an issue that feminist scholarship has raised time and again.

Winner, 2009 Abbott Lowell Cummings Prize. Vernacular Architecture Forum This pioneering study explains how one of America’s important early cities responded to the challenge of housing its poorer citizens. Where and how did the working poor live? How did builders and developers provide reasonably priced housing for lower-income groups during the city's growth? Having studied over 3,000 surviving alley houses in Baltimore through extensive land records and census research, Mary Ellen Hayward systematically reconstructs the lives, households, and neighborhoods that once thrived on the city's narrowest streets. In the past, these neighborhoods were sometimes referred to as "dilapidated," "blighted," or "poverty stricken." In Baltimore's Alley Houses, Hayward reveals the rich cultural and ethnic traditions that formed the African-American and immigrant Irish, German, Bohemian, and Polish communities that made their homes on the city's alley streets. Featuring more than one hundred historic images, Baltimore's Alley Houses documents the changing architectural styles of low-income housing over two centuries and reveals the complex lives of its residents.

"Introducing novel theoretical, empirical and practical investigations with case studies from UK, Europe, South America and South East Asia, the book offers a novel global outlook on how contemporary homes are facing genuine challenges from operational, economic, spatial, social and wellbeing perspectives. The changing demographics of our modern society have inevitably impacted the dynamics and relationships within the home from being personal and private to that of multiple work relationships; domestic work, care for older people, or supporting people with special needs. Whilst the home is a concept universally experienced, permeating every aspect of our lives, it remains an entity whose influence on health and wellbeing is poorly understood. This book brings together 17 different contributions from scholars, researchers and practitioners from different disciplinary and professional backgrounds including three feature articles by leading figures, such as Lord Best and Broness Hollins. The chapters are organised within three parts that look at the triangle of people + work + care in the home. At a time when homes are increasingly becoming local hubs for care and wellbeing, this volume is a critical and useful addition to current literature in the social sciences, humanities, economics, culture, care and wellbeing in the domestic sphere"--

First published in 1990, Working in Residential Homes for Elderly People outlines the purposes and objectives of residential homes and what it is like to live and work in them. The author looks at the factors that make for a good quality of life, considering how these can be promoted and how staff can work with people, both individually and in groups, to help them get the best out of life. He reviews prevalent thinking about what happens to people as they grow older, and, at a practical level, he looks carefully at the day-to-day management of homes, suggesting how they should be organized in order to get the best out of the staff, buildings and resources. Unique in its coverage of the process of ageing, good practice, and good management, the book takes into account the differing needs of both residents and staff. With its emphasis on the various aspects of the flexible, individual support necessary in providing ‘a good home’, it will be invaluable to social work and social care students, residential workers, and their managers.

First published in 1990, Working in Residential Homes for Elderly People outlines the purposes and objectives of residential homes and what it is like to live and work in them. The author looks at the factors that make for a good quality of life, considering how these can be promoted and how staff can work with people, both individually and in groups, to help them get the best out of life. He reviews prevalent thinking about what happens to people as they grow older, and, at a practical level, he looks carefully at the day-to-day management of homes, suggesting how they should be organized in order to get the best out of the staff, buildings and resources. Unique in its coverage of the process of ageing, good practice, and good management, the book takes into account the differing needs of both residents and staff. With its emphasis on the various aspects of the flexible, individual support necessary in providing a good home', it will be invaluable to social work and social care students, residential workers, and their managers.

Draws on a unique 3-year action research study that surveyed daily life and residents' experiences. Provides evidence-based strategic and practical suggestions for ways that staff and organisations can improve quality of life for residents. Authors from La Trobe University, Australia.