Un/Identifying reflexive subjects: The case of women in paid domestic work in Mexico

Abstract

Theories of reflexive modernization are still at the centre of a heated debate regarding the possibilities of social transformation through agency and the reflexive capacity of individuals to work on themselves through the construction of their own biographies and certainties. However, when it comes to identifying reflexivity in the lived experiences of individuals, the issue becomes more complex since this enterprise greatly depends on the way people engage with narratives of the self. This article explores reflexivity and processes of individualization in the lived experiences of paid domestic workers and women employers in Mexico. The article also analyses the way academic work has identified reflexivity among workers. Even though the term 'reflexivity' has not specifically being used, studies have often demonstrated the way domestic workers reflexively engage with processes of individualization. The article argues that there are important methodological challenges when it comes to identifying reflexivity through narratives of the self. The context of an interview, the subjectivities of the researcher and participants' own subject position might all be factors that enable or obstruct the production of those narratives and therefore have an effect on the visibility of processes of individualization in the lived experiences of individuals.

Paid domestic work and outsourcing in South Africa: Clients’ views on trust, control and power relations

“…The employer–domestic worker power relations are deeply embedded in colonial disparities between the employer’s and domestic worker’s race, class, income, access to resources, education levels and citizenship that employers often use to exploit domestic workers (Masterson and Hoobler, 2019: 354; Saldaña-Tejeda, 2015: 944). The traditional master–servant relationship between an employer and the domestic servant typically meant that the employer had greater power and superiority, while the domestic servant was placed in a subordinate position (Burger et al, 2018: 51).…”

“The Dirt Came Up”: Domestic Service and Women's Agency in Oaxaca City, Mexico

“…The emphasis placed on formal education emerging in this snapshot of an economically constrained household exemplifies the well documented goals of poorer urban Mexican parents-including mothers working as domestics-who aspire that their children will "get ahead" (sobresalir or salir adelante) and have a "better life" (a vivir mejor) through schooling (Blum 2004;D ıaz Barriga 1999;Goldsmith 1989; Gonz alez de la Rocha 1994;Lewis 1959;Saldaña-Tejeda 2015). This conviction emerges clearly in historian Mary Goldsmith's (1989, 22) observation that a typical domestic worker in Mexico City "dreams of her children's future rather than her own.…”