Work Without Wages: Comparative Studies of Domestic Labor and Self-Employment

production for family consumption and for the wider market. While the importance of women's domestic labor has been generally recognized, the complex articulation between household activities and the changing nature of the economy has rarely been examined in greater depth than in this volume. The authors explore, theoretically and empirically, the relationships between household labor, wage levels, markets, economic change, and the status of women in the context of both first and third world countries. In the process, narrowly-defined debates are expanded, suggesting ways in which our understanding of domestic activities is relevant to studies of petty commodity production and vice versa.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Preface PART I: THEORIZING UNWAGED WORK 1. Unwaged Labor in Comparative Perspective: Recent Theories and Unanswered Questions Jane L. Collins 2. The Dialectics of Waged and Unwaged Work: Waged Work, Domestic Labor, and Household Survival in the United States Martha E. Gimenez PART II: THE SOCIAL RELATIONS OF UNWAGED WORK 3. Negotiating Neighbors: Livelihood and Domestic Politics in Central Peru and the Pais Valenciano (Spain) Gavin Smith 4. "Not to Be a Burden": Ideologies of the Domestic Group and Women's Work in Rural Catalonia Susan Narotzky 5. Female Labor, Commodity Production, and Ideology in Mexican Peasant-Artisan Households Scott Cook 6. Caribbean Slavery and the Struggle over Reproduction Dale Tomich PART III: CAPITALIST CRISES AND UNWAGED WORK 7. All Crises Are Not the Same: Households in the United States during Two Crises Joan Smith 8. Servants to Capital: Unpaid Domestic Labor and Paid Work Nona Glazer 9. Making Ends Meet: Unwaged Work and Domestic Inequality in Broome County, New York, 1930-1980 Randall H. McGuire and Cynthia Woodsong 10. Family Wheat Farms and Third World Diets: A Paradoxical Relationship between Unwaged and Waged Labor Harriet Friedmann Notes and References Contributors Index

About the Author :
Jane L. Collins is in the Department of Anthropology at the State University of New York, Binghamton. Martha Gimenez is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Colorado.

Review :
"The volume brings together some of the newest ideas and approaches in the field. There are many exciting, provocative ideas in these chapters. The volume significantly moves forward the analytical thinking about work, family and household, and the market." - Marianne Schmink, University of Florida "This book promises to be an important and visible contribution to the literatures on peasants, petty commodity producers, and households. It should lead to a rethinking of basic assumptions and categories." - William Roseberry, New School for Social Research