City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 9-2016 Boundaries of Home and Work: Social Reproduction and Home- Based Workers in Ahmedabad, India Natascia Boeri The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1532 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] BOUNDARIES OF HOME AND WORK: SOCIAL REPRODUCTION AND HOME-BASED WORKERS IN AHMEDABAD, INDIA by NATASCIA BOERI A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Sociology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2016 © 2016 NATASCIA BOERI All Rights Reserved ii Boundaries of Home and Work: Social Reproduction and Home-Based Workers in Ahmedabad, India by Natascia Boeri This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Sociology in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Date Hester Eisenstein Chair of Examining Committee Date Philip Kasinitz Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: Sujatha Fernandes Ruth Milkman Rupal Oza THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii ABSTRACT Boundaries of Home and Work: Social Reproduction and Home-Based Workers in Ahmedabad, India by Natascia Boeri Advisor: Hester Eisenstein This dissertation critically questions the use of women’s labor in international development and global capitalism by examining women’s participation in the informal economy, a significant source of work for women in the Global South. Based on ten months of fieldwork in Ahmedabad, India, this study considers women’s experiences with informality when they participate in home- based work, the production of goods for the market in one’s own home. I ask how women’s place- based activities redefine their roles and positions across three spheres of social life: the family, the economy, and civil society (through their participation in a non-governmental organization, or NGO). I argue that the material consequences of neoliberal capitalism for workers can only be fully understood by also accounting for ideological and symbolic relations of power, which is possible with the analytical framework provided by social reproduction theory. Working with the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), a membership-based organization for women in the informal economy in India, I conducted a survey of one hundred home-based garment workers, follow-up interviews with thirty of the workers and spatial analysis of their homes, content analysis of SEWA documentation and media, and interviews with five SEWA directors and four local academics and activists. iv This dissertation presents four main findings. First, the temporal and spatial aspects of home-based work create a worker who is always available, even when caring, and easily disposed of in the subcontracting system. Second, the characterization of informal workers as entrepreneurs, exemplified by the micro-entrepreneurial woman, contradicts actual experiences with informality. Third, women express agency in their choices and practices, yet, these actions are informed within a set of socio-cultural and economic boundaries, reproducing feminine domesticity. However, in my final empirical chapter, I argue that women envision resistance to the reproduction of power through their aspirations that their children find secure work in the formal economy. Notably, for their daughters, women emphasize the importance of mobility and leaving the home to “come forward in life,” and so transgress boundaries of feminine domesticity. These aspirations point to women’s understanding of their social position in this economic system, an acknowledgement that was left unsaid earlier in the interviews. Analyzing women’s place-based activities reveals the role of their social reproduction labor across the institutions of the family, economy, and civil society. Women employ practices and discourses that reproduce, redefine, and at times resist these power dynamics. It is necessary to acknowledge the interdependence of production and social reproduction when considering the growing presence of informality in the contemporary economic landscape and the continuing use of women’s labor to support international development. Lastly, this dissertation highlights the necessity for transnational sociological knowledge, since individuals and communities of the Global South have faced precarity in social life long before the term entered Western discourse. v Acknowledgements This dissertation would not have been possible without the support of many people and institutions. The Graduate Center offered early support for research, including the Doctoral Student Research Grant, the Provost’s Digital Innovation Grant, and a travel grant from the Center for the Study of Women and Society. Dissertation fieldwork was supported by a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant from the National Science Foundation. After fieldwork, I was able to devote myself entirely to the writing of the dissertation thanks to an American Fellowship by the American Association of University Women. I thank all of these institutions for their support in this project and their confidence in me. However, monetary support alone does not result in a completed dissertation. I would like to thank my committee for their guidance over the years. I thank Hester Eisenstein, my dissertation advisor, for believing in this project from the beginning. Her unique approach to feminism and unwavering critique of capitalism pushed me to think of new ways of understanding gender and the global economy. I would also like to thank Sujatha Fernandes, Rupal Oza, and Ruth Milkman for their contribution to this dissertation as committee members. Sujatha inspired me to think beyond the disciplinary boundaries of sociology. Rupal’s knowledge of India was an invaluable resource for this dissertation, and Ruth’s thoughtful feedback resulted in a stronger dissertation. There are always moments of despair when writing, but it is because of my family and friends that I was able to persevere. Foremost, I would like to thank my mother and my husband, Robert. My mother offered much needed guidance on how to survive graduate school. From navigating Ahmedabad streets to endless pages of drafts, this adventure would not have been the same without Robert. At the Graduate Center, I am grateful for my friendships with Jacob vi Lederman and Tommy Wu. The LIS Center offered a space of collaboration and encouragement, thank you in particular to Janet Gornick, Caroline Batzdorf, and Laurie Maldonado. My research would not have been possible without the support of SEWA Academy, who offered me a summer internship and agreed to host me during my dissertation research. In particular, I would like to thank Namrata Bali, Mita Parikh, and Mirai Chatterjee. I also thank the SEWA Academy Literacy Department for their help in organizing visits to the fieldsites. Research in Ahmedabad would have been very different if not for a number of colleagues and friends. Despite linguistic barriers, all of the staff at SEWA Research made me feel welcomed, and I will always cherish our memories from the Ellis Bridge office. In particular, I would like to thank Jayshree, my companion to the fieldsites, whose patience, humor, and advice made fieldwork a more enjoyable experience. Thanks are also due to Jigna and Khyati for their help on other projects during my time at SEWA. Others who have made an impact on my time in Ahmedabad, and so this dissertation, include Vaishali and her family, Rachna, Suneela, Mr. Christie, and Professors Chandrika Raval and Shailaja Dhruva. I want to thank in particular Kirit and Vasumati for being my family when I was far from my own. Most importantly, I would like to thank the home-based workers who participated in this research. Many of these women opened up their homes to Jayshree and me, welcoming us to partake in a small part of their lives. Their strength and determination to make difficult circumstances better is an inspiration. Whether or not their dreams will be achieved, I do hope that the stories presented in the following pages contribute in some part to the seeing of workers as more than numbers and development as more than growth. This project would have been impossible without their stories, and I thank them for that. vii Table of Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... vi List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. ix List of Figures .................................................................................................................................. x List of Abbreviations ...................................................................................................................... xi Chapter 1. Women’s Labor in the Home, Community, and Economy ........................................... 1 Chapter 2. Ahmedabad: Textiles, Gandhi, and Hindutva ............................................................. 43 Chapter 3. Methodology: Researching Women in the Informal Economy .................................