Children’s Domestic Work in Abidjan, Côte D’ivoire

Jacquemin, Mélanie

doi:10.1177/0907568204044889

Cited by 54 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 1 publication

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Because child domestic work is carried out in unregulated domestic spaces, the living and working conditions of the young employees are largely at the whim of their employers. Traumatic experiences of abuse, exploitation, humiliation and isolation have been documented in numerous national contexts (Camacho 1999, Kifle 2002, Jacquemin 2004, Rubenson et al 2004Klocker 2011Klocker , 2014Blagbrough 2008, Bourdillon 2009, Wasiuzzaman and Wells 2010. Yet attempts to abolish child domestic work in order to protect working children are problematic because the children involved typically have few alternatives (Klocker 2011, 5 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Participatory action research: The distress of (not) making a difference

Klocker

2015

Emotion, Space and Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Participatory action research (PAR) is alluring for researchers investigating traumatic and sensitive topics. While it is distressing for interviewees to recount these stories -and for researchers to hear them -PAR promises to make the pain worthwhile. Something good will come of it. In this paper, I reflect on a PAR project conducted with Tanzanian child domestic workers. Research vignettes are used to highlight moments of emotional complexity unique to PAR projects. First, the emotional burdens of PAR are distributed across a research team. Researchers need to think carefully about the appropriate 'level' of participation to pursue. Second, there is no guarantee that the impacts of PAR projects will be unambiguously positive. The risk of doing more harm than good can weigh heavily on the minds of the research team. Third, when PAR projects are conceived with the intent of producing long-lasting structural changes that benefit marginalised people, 'failure' can become a source of great distress. Those attempting PAR need to be prepared for the emotional pitfalls of research endeavours that seek to tangibly intervene in traumatised people's lives.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Participatory action research: The distress of (not) making a difference

Klocker

2015

Emotion, Space and Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Child domestic workers are a notoriously difficult group to access for research purposes because of the 'hidden' location of their work in domestic relationships and spaces and the high degree of control exerted over their movements by some employers (Jacquemin, 2004;UNICEF, 1999). The 3 Amina Haule is a pseudonym as this young researcher did not want her real name published.…”

Section: Investigating Child Domestic Work In Iringa Tanzaniamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Had we only interviewed current child domestic workers, a vastly different picture of this occupation would have emerged. Current child domestic workers were recruited via employers who had participated in this study, due to concerns that covertly interviewing child domestic workers (without employers' consent) would place them at risk of punishment (Jacquemin, 2004;Forrester-Kibuga, 2000). The ethical appropriateness of this decision was confirmed by our young interviewees' admissions that child domestic workers' time is closely monitored and that a delayed return to an employer's home (for instance, when running errands) is risky.…”

Section: Investigating Child Domestic Work In Iringa Tanzaniamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The existing literature draws attention to child domestic work as a largely hidden, informal and poorly regulated field of employment in which children's treatment is contingent upon employers' goodwill (Black, 1997;Blagbrough, 2008;Fyfe, 1989;UNICEF, 1999). Studies in a range of countries have documented child domestic workers' experiences of physical, sexual and psychological abuse, neglect and economic exploitation (Camacho, 1999;Forrester-Kibuga, 2000;Godoy, 2002;Jacquemin 2004Jacquemin , 2006Kannangara et al, 2003;Kifle, 2002;Rubenson et al, 2004). This paper is formulated around a participatory and action-oriented study of child domestic work conducted in Iringa, a small town in the southern highlands of Tanzania (Klocker, 2011;.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Conducting sensitive research in the present and past tense: Recounting the stories of current and former child domestic workers

Klocker

2012

Geoforum

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Klocker, N. (2012). Conducting sensitive research in the present and past tense: recounting the stories of current and former child domestic workers. Geoforum, 43 (5), 894-904. Conducting sensitive research in the present and past tense: recounting the stories of current and former child domestic workers AbstractIn recent years, scholarship on children's work has increasingly incorporated the perspectives of working children. Although laudable, this shift toward children's inclusion in research has concentrated on those employed at the time of data collection. Former child workers have largely been overlooked as a source of information. This paper reflects on research conducted with current and former child domestic workers in Tanzania. The child domestic working experiences reported by those two groups diverged markedly: those who had already ceased employment reported far higher rates of dissatisfaction with child domestic work, and far more experiences of exploitation and abuse, than those who were still employed in the sector. This paper explores issues of memory, identity, representation and performance to propose explanations for such dissonance. It concludes that the (near) exclusive focus of the literature on children who are currently employed is of some considerable concern, as scholars often make practical and policy-oriented recommendations about children's work on the basis of their findings. This paper makes a case that all 'versions' of a phenomenon offer (at best) partial insights into lived experiences and that researchers investigating sensitive issues, whether with adults or children, may benefit from conducting research in both the past and present tense. In recent years, scholarship on children's work has increasingly incorporated the perspectives of working children. Although laudable, this shift toward children's inclusion in research has concentrated on those employed at the time of data collection. Former child workers have largely been overlooked as a source of information. This paper reflects on research conducted with current and former child domestic workers in Tanzania. The child domestic working experiences reported by those two groups diverged markedly: those who had already ceased employment reported far higher rates of dissatisfaction with child domestic work, and far more experiences of exploitation and abuse, than those who were still employed in the sector. This paper explores issues of memory, identity, representation and performance to propose explanations for such dissonance. It concludes that the (near) exclusive focus of the literature on children who are currently employed is of some considerable concern, as scholars often make practical and policy-oriented recommendations about children's work on the basis of their findings. This paper makes a case that all 'versions' of a phenomenon offer (at best) partial insights into lived experiences and that researchers investigating sensitive issues, whether with adults or children, may benefit from conducting research in bo...

show abstract

“…A relevant number of researchers have underlined the relevance of cultural or historical aspects that intervene in determining the threshold of acceptability of child work not only according to the families, the children and the social context, but also to the researchers (Cunningham, 1995;Nanjunda and Annapurna, 2006;Ungar, 2008). In fact, when approaching child work, what is conceptualized in terms of work, childhood and its care, play a determinant role (Jacquemin, 2004;Qvortrup 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%