TY - JOUR
T1 - Digital platforms for (female) domestic workers in Chile: Precarization, invisibilization, and mercantilization
AU - Rodriguez Covarrubias, Natalie
AU - Alvarez-Figueroa, Francisca
N1 - Dr Natalie Rodríguez‐Covarrubias, is currently a doctoral researcher at the School of Psychology, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile; and the School of Sociology and Anthropology of the Complutense University of Madrid. Partial professor at the PUCV in subjects such as Work and Organizational Psychology. She obtained her master's degree in Clinical Psychology at the University of Valparaíso; and his Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso, Chile. Her research focuses on Gender, Work and Migration, and domestic workers in Chile.
Dr Francisca Álvarez‐Figueroa, is a Lecturer in Employment Studies and member of the Work and Equalities Institute. She obtained her master's degree in Human Resource Management from the University of Liverpool; and her Bachelors' degree in Psychology from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile. Her
research focuses on Decent Work, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Human Resource Management, Employment Studies, and Organizational Development.
PY - 2024/8/30
Y1 - 2024/8/30
N2 - Digital platforms for Domestic Workers (DW) are widespread, entailing work management and employment challenges. In Chile, DW has inherited colonial and class dynamics that are still present. Besides, this role has shown a significant occupation rate where one out of 10 women is DW; from this, one of every three are migrants. This study aims to analyze digital platforms for DW in Chile critically. For this, following Fairclough's model (1989), we develop a Critical Discourse Analysis through the micro (textual), meso (production), and macro (Sociocultural) levels in three Chilean digital platforms for DW. The results expose how the platforms are organized and how the DW as a subject is conceived. In this sense, personal characteristics, such as age, gender, nationality, and lifestyle, are marketized as part of a product where workers are easily replaceable, unveiling the commodification of DW. Hence, there is a dominance and commodification over the worker's time, private life, and corporality, a dynamic that we call chronoproperty. We discuss that DW's labor is presented as a good rather than a service, reflecting on the managerial system built in Chilean society through discourses and practices. We reflect on the international implications of our findings amidst the rise of digital platforms for DW and the need to advance toward an intersectional understanding of the working logic, considering that domestic work is mostly performed by migrant women crossed by class and race dynamics.
AB - Digital platforms for Domestic Workers (DW) are widespread, entailing work management and employment challenges. In Chile, DW has inherited colonial and class dynamics that are still present. Besides, this role has shown a significant occupation rate where one out of 10 women is DW; from this, one of every three are migrants. This study aims to analyze digital platforms for DW in Chile critically. For this, following Fairclough's model (1989), we develop a Critical Discourse Analysis through the micro (textual), meso (production), and macro (Sociocultural) levels in three Chilean digital platforms for DW. The results expose how the platforms are organized and how the DW as a subject is conceived. In this sense, personal characteristics, such as age, gender, nationality, and lifestyle, are marketized as part of a product where workers are easily replaceable, unveiling the commodification of DW. Hence, there is a dominance and commodification over the worker's time, private life, and corporality, a dynamic that we call chronoproperty. We discuss that DW's labor is presented as a good rather than a service, reflecting on the managerial system built in Chilean society through discourses and practices. We reflect on the international implications of our findings amidst the rise of digital platforms for DW and the need to advance toward an intersectional understanding of the working logic, considering that domestic work is mostly performed by migrant women crossed by class and race dynamics.
KW - commodified subjects
KW - digital platforms
KW - domestic workers
KW - working conditions
U2 - 10.1111/gwao.13183
DO - 10.1111/gwao.13183
M3 - Article
SN - 0968-6673
SP - 1
JO - Gender, Work and Organization
JF - Gender, Work and Organization
ER -