Who Cares? Work in South African Farmworker Homes: A Dialectical Materialist Methodology
Author: Anne H Wiltshire, annewiltshire@hotmail.com
Department: Sociology and Social Anthropology
University: Stellenbosch University, South Africa
Supervisor: Dr Khayaat Fakier
Year of completion: 2024
Language of dissertation: English
Keywords:
Work
, Home
, Social Reproduction Theory
, Dialectical Materialism
Areas of Research:
Logic and Methodology
, Comparative Sociology
, Poverty, Social Welfare and Social Policy
Abstract
This dissertation investigates the social issue surrounding farmworkers who transition out of temporary employment for work in homes. It employs Social Reproduction Theory (SRT) as both eminent social theory of work in homes (Hopkins, 2017) and as dialectical materialist methodology (Davis, 1981; Federici, 1998; Bhattacharya, 2017a,b; McNally, 2017). The findings suggest that despite SRT’s neglect to research workers in homes as inclusive of children, given the advancements in Childhood Studies and Social Reproduction Feminism (SRF) SRT has begun theorising child work in homes. The philosophical analyses examine the underpinnings of SRT’s dialectical materialist methodology. The ontological analysis argues dialectical materialism excels at rendering the best understandings of social phenomena. This is because dialectical materialism is not only a social theory, but also a method of enquiry. The epistemological analysis finds dialectical materialism further distinguished as social scientific methodology for its comparative method, empirical grounding, and scientific evidence-based pursuit of knowledge. The theoretical and conceptual analyses reveal SRT’s methodological limitations. SRT has significantly broadened its narrowly concrete theorisation of work in homes of white Anglo-American middle-class adult women. SRT's 'strategic essentialism' (Hochschild, 2003) conceptualises concretes of work, has yet to reach conceptual consensus nor a rigorous conceptualisation of work, in homes. The policy analysis finds the contemporary SNA, ILO and UNICEF frameworks are based on historic and optimal market assumptions, suggesting largescale underestimation of child work, hazardous working conditions, and child neglect. For these reasons, this dissertation theorises work abstractly. This heeds Marx's dialectical materialist methodology and suggestion that work in the social economy “be treated and analysed according to the existing empirical data” (1932: 49). The research design was informed by the comparative method of SRT’s dialectical materialist methodology. Qualitative data was collected at three points in time over one year from quotas of 12 farmworking women stratified by residence (farm/town) and employment (permanent/temporary). Validation of the findings necessitated an abductive analysis to triangulate the empirical findings with parallel data from Childhood Studies, SRF, and Social Reproduction in Education (SRE), in addition to SRT. The historical analysis reveals a social reorganisation of work, workers, and workplaces, emphasising the importance of contextualising social research. Nineteenth century ‘child workers' have been reconceived adult ‘workers’; and, child 'scholars’ and whom without adult supervisionary ‘care’ are ‘neglected’ children. The contemporary analysis finds despite prohibition of child employment, even in agriculture, the hours of child work in schools have yet to be renegotiated in 200 years, especially for the youngest most vulnerable scholars. This dissertation emphasises the value of dialectical materialism as social scientific methodology. It raises concern for the Social State of Neglect of vulnerable children, especially during employment hours. It proposes urgent national and international social policy reform to address the social disjuncture in the social organisation of work, achieve the ‘Social’ objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and ensure the fundamental and paramount Rights of children to ‘care’ and social protection from ‘neglect’.
