Invisible Labor Research Articles

Professionalization from above in domestic work: Accessing work on marketplace platforms

Domestic work has always been a quintessential example of invisible labour. In this article, I explore how workers build individual visibility on marketplace platforms. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with workers who use different marketplace platforms in Geneva and surrounding areas to find domestic work, I show how visibility on marketplace platforms requires invisible work and a different set of skills, competencies, codes of conduct and client management. I argue that visibility on marketplace platforms can be interpreted as a form of professionalization from above. On one hand, visibility becomes a barrier to entry in finding work. The different requirements for building visibility lead to an institutionalization of standardized skills and practices necessary to access work on the platform. On the other hand, marketplace platforms ignore the formality of the employment relationship and decent wages, which are externalized and managed between workers and the platform clients.

Snowboarding while Black: race, aesthetics, and Jamaican migrant workers

ABSTRACT How snowboarding intersects with race in a Canadian mountain resort is explored in this research note. Snowboarding is now globalised but emerged in the USA in the 1960s as an alternative lifestyle sport. Race was embedded in its birth as then, as now, snowboarding is dominated by privileged White participants who are mostly male. The White dominance is masked as whiteness is invisibilized by claims of being neutral or colour-blind. Yet, a Black presence surrounds snowboarding. The second theme examines snowboarding’s commodification of Black aesthetics. It uses Black music and urban fashion to enhance and market its supposedly radical or coolness credentials to its suburban White audience. The mining of Black aesthetics is unacknowledged and thus whitewashes the economic exploitation of Black culture. Migrant workers are the backbone of snow resorts, and the third theme examines this use of transnational labour. It probes why Australians are the visible workers on the snow-kissed slopes and front desks, while Jamaicans are the invisible labour in catering and housekeeping. The use of migrant labour is racialised and further reifies the whiteness of snowboarding. Black snowboarders, riding the snowy slopes for leisure, expose and disrupt the politics of race and place in snowboarding.

“I am there just to get on with it”: a qualitative study on the labour of the patient and public involvement workforce

BackgroundWorkers tasked with specific responsibilities around patient and public involvement (PPI) are now routinely part of the organizational landscape for applied health research in the United Kingdom. Even as the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has had a pioneering role in developing a robust PPI infrastructure for publicly funded health research in the United Kingdom, considerable barriers remain to embedding substantive and sustainable public input in the design and delivery of research. Notably, researchers and clinicians report a tension between funders’ orientation towards deliverables and the resources and labour required to embed public involvement in research. These and other tensions require further investigation.MethodsThis was a qualitative study with participatory elements. Using purposive and snowball sampling and attending to regional and institutional diversity, we conducted 21 semi-structured interviews with individuals holding NIHR-funded formal PPI roles across England. Interviews were analysed through reflexive thematic analysis with coding and framing presented and adjusted through two workshops with study participants.ResultsWe generated five overarching themes which signal a growing tension between expectations put on staff in PPI roles and the structural limitations of these roles: (i) the instability of support; (ii) the production of invisible labour; (iii) PPI work as more than a job; (iv) accountability without control; and (v) delivering change without changing.ConclusionsThe NIHR PPI workforce has enabled considerable progress in embedding patient and public input in research activities. However, the role has led not to a resolution of the tension between performance management priorities and the labour of PPI, but rather to its displacement and – potentially – its intensification. We suggest that the expectation to “deliver” PPI hinges on a paradoxical demand to deliver a transformational intervention that is fundamentally divorced from any labour of transformation. We conclude that ongoing efforts to transform health research ecologies so as to better respond to the needs of patients will need to grapple with the force and consequences of this paradoxical demand.

Art Work: Invisible Labour and the Legacy of Yugoslav Socialism

Art Work: Invisible Labour and the Legacy of Yugoslav Socialism

A life in pictures: trans visibility, invisible labour and the film career of Robert Allen

A life in pictures: trans visibility, invisible labour and the film career of Robert Allen

The Shadow Bodies of Mice: Invisible Work in Translational Medicine

The clinician-scientist is often viewed as the crucial nexus in the translational processes that turn scientific research into medical technologies, including but not limited to pharmaceuticals. To create a point of contrast, and to consider the theme of invisible labor, this paper foregrounds an alternative actant who has also been deemed a vital nexus in translational medicine within Science and Technology Studies: the laboratory animal as model organism. Based on observational research conducted in an animal facility that was caring for laboratory mice as well as the immunological laboratory that was conducting research regarding ageing and vaccine uptake using those mice, this paper explores how mouse bodies and animal technicians’ knowledge of those mouse bodies are rendered invisible through the everyday flows of translation. I draw on Balka and Star's concept of “shadow bodies” to consider variations in how mouse bodies are understood across the translational process and probe the consequences this has for what knowledge is legitimately produced and by whom. By making the invisible work of mice and of technicians visible, I argue that the organizational filters of translational medicine may inadvertently make the work of animal technicians all the harder, in a manner that reproduces social inequalities.

Academic librarians’ Twitter practices and the production of knowledge infrastructures in higher education

This short paper describes the use of infrastructural theory to interrogate data gathered for an ongoing study on the Twitter practices of academic librarians at one research-intensive university in the United Kingdom. In tandem with wider changes in networked technologies and ways of producing scholarship, academic librarians’ roles have shifted increasingly to knowledge production, particularly in the area of research support. A related shift has been academic librarians’ adoption of social media, particularly Twitter, to disseminate information and encourage community and collaboration. The few existing studies of librarians’ Twitter practices, however, frame such activity as service promotion, overlooking the relationship between technology and professional practice entwined and concomitant social effects in the university. The theoretical framework devised for this study was woven from research in anthropology and Science and Technology Studies about the nature of infrastructure. Instead of viewing infrastructure as separate and monolithic substrates supporting the circulation of goods and information, such theory posits infrastructure as relational and contingent, constituted of political decisions and having broad and co[1]constitutive social effects on knowledge, subjectivities and agencies (Jensen & Morita, 2017). The study’s theoretical framework particularly draws on the notion of knowledge infrastructures defined as “networks of people, artifacts, and institutions that generate, share, and maintain specific knowledge about the human and natural worlds” (Edwards, 2010). The framework therefore emphasises the invisible labour of infrastructure — often dubbed infrastructuring — and related socio-political practices of design and maintenance that embody promises for the future (Larkin, 2018). In this picture, infrastructure is fragile and contingent, shaped by its installed base, and remarkably complicated, unfixed and open to contestation. Based on preliminary findings, the study argues that academic librarians' Twitter practices constitute knowledge infrastructures in higher education. Using an infrastructural framework helped foreground the material conditions of librarians’ knowledge production in terms of entanglements of technology and professional values, shifts in professional subjectivities and performative effects within the university. A tentative implication for studies of technology and learning is that, by insisting that infrastructure and social activity are intertwined, learners and teachers are not framed in opposition to infrastructure and are thus better able to contest totalising narratives surrounding infrastructural learning technologies such as VLEs or MOOCs. In this picture, therefore, infrastructure is not simplistically background bulwark or sinister force. Appreciating the invisible labour involved in creating and sustaining infrastructure is therefore important for understanding contemporary learning contexts.

Critical Focus: Study of an Arts Centre

Critical Focus: Study of an Arts Centre is a 15-minute, two-channel film documenting the everyday life of an art gallery during the exhibition installation period. It was made as part of a sociological investigation of skilled but invisible labour in the art gallery, such as that of gallery technicians. In addition to this focus on skilled labour, the film focuses on the atmospheres of the different spaces in and around the gallery, and the ways they are produced by different social actors. The accompanying essay introduces the context in which the film was made, as well as the theories that informed it. These include theories of atmosphere and skill, as well as the styles and practices of artists who make documentary-like work themselves. The essay also details choices that are both ethical and stylistic, such as the close angles, the focus on material and architectural textures, and a focus on hands rather than faces.

Women's Role in Informal Support Systems: Supporting Families and Creating Communities in Parent and Baby Groups in Scotland

This article presents findings from two case studies examining the experiences of participants and volunteers in parent/carer and baby groups (playgroups) in Scotland. Through a detailed case study analysis – using participatory observation and a series of semi-structured interviews – this research finds that playgroups: 1) support the development of social capital through long-term connections and sense of belonging and wellbeing; 2) enhance community voluntarism and reciprocity, through capacity building; and 3) develop the skills and confidence of their members related to child development through knowledge exchange and storytelling. It is further contended that despite playgroups importance to the social fabric and contribution to other positive social outcomes, these groups, and the women that run them, have been marginalised as researchers focus attention on more formal early years’ education and child development. This research highlights an important gap in knowledge and focus from social scientists on informal settings and women’s invisible labour, which take place every day and in every community in Scotland. The research aims to inform policy and practice on perinatal support and early-years settings in Scotland and more widely.

Toward a community model of scholarly editing: FAIR/CARE, research ethics, & labour visibility

Historically, scholarly editions of music have identified a managing editor and individual volume editors. Other contributors might receive an acknowledgement with a vague description of activities, with institutional support often appearing in the printed metadata. This model’s emphasis on single scholars perpetuates a myth, relying heretofore upon predominantly invisible labour. Digital editions require interdisciplinary collaboration combining musicological skills, technical skills, and infrastructural resources, thus challenging this model’s ability to endure. Moreover, digital editions proffer opportunities for reconsidering the roles, workflows, and knowledge structures involved in critical musical scholarship. Situated at the intersection of currently running and recently completed digital projects, continuously emergent tools, sociology, and philosophy, this essay reflects on the role of the editor in the digital age. Beginning with Howard Becker’s art worlds model of creative communities, it suggests a model based on FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) and CARE (Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, and Ethics) principles and the Music Encoding Initiative (MEI). MEI affords expansive metadata recording for contributors – composers, librettists, performers, editors, researchers, funders, etc. – to a work and its embodiments, which in turn enables broader visibility and empowers greater acknowledgement of the labour involved in such projects. Alongside other digital projects, this essay pays particular attention to how these technological and team-focused concepts are at- and in-play in the Reger-Werkausgabe Online.

Migrant domestic workers and transnational foodcare chains in pandemic times

AbstractIn view of heightened food security issues in COVID‐19 times, we employ a transnational lens to give bifocal attention to migrant women’s experiences during the pandemic, as they sought to secure access to food for themselves and for left‐behind children and family members in Indonesia and the Philippines. In conjunction with the classic idea of global care chains and the notion of foodwork, we propose the idea of transnational foodcare chains. This distinctly agentic, migrant, and maternal food labour came to the fore under exceptional times of pandemic‐induced social distancing, economic precarity, and limited travel. First, we argue that these foodcare chains are multi‐relational, involving interdependence and reciprocity among a web of caregivers to secure food gaps. Second, we suggest that foodcare chains also extend to friendship networks forged among fellow migrant domestic workers in Singapore. Third, under pandemic conditions, we argue that foodcare chains enter the domain of well‐being and healthcare as food becomes evoked as medicine and cures. Drawing on findings from 40 qualitative interviews with Indonesian and Filipino migrant domestic workers in Singapore, we focus on developing, within studies of food (in)security, the idea of foodcare chains by foregrounding the maternal, relational, and often invisible labour of achieving food security for migrant women and their left‐behind families.

Minoritized mother politicians in Ireland: Subjectivities and subjectivation in the political workplace

AbstractMinoritized mother politicians that include ethnic racialized minority Traveller (an Irish indigenous community), racialized ethnic minority women, and migrant women face considerable disadvantages as workers arising from the intersection of their maternal status, gender, racialized or migrant and class position. The experiences of minoritized mother candidates and politicians in Ireland are viewed through the lens of subjectivities providing insight into how these mother‐workers mediate identities and status positions that place them outside of, or in tension with, a predominantly white masculinist workplace. Empirical data analysis reveals how minoritized mother candidates and politicians respond in strategic ways to forces of subjectivation that may risk affirming idealized motherhood, while obscuring gendered and racialized inequalities in the political workplace. Paradoxically, motherhood seeds political ambition while acting as a material, temporal, and affective constraint, a source of invisible labor and violence in gendered and racialized ways. However, minoritized mothers' presence and representations also offer an important challenge to this white masculinist workplace.

Invisible labor and the associate professor: Identity and workload inequity.

Invisible labor and the associate professor: Identity and workload inequity.

Invisible Labor, Visible Impact: A Comprehensive Study on the Role and Treatment of Domestic Maids.

Abstract: Through this platform we enhance the efficiency of hiring processes, offering users a transparent and accessible interface for finding and managing reliable maid services. Through a detailed examination of the website's functionality and user experience, through this assesses its contribution to simplifying the traditionally complex task of hiring domestic help. The study delves into the platform's role in fostering transparency, trust, and convenience, ultimately contributing to improved customer satisfaction and increased employment opportunities for domestic workers. Through an analysis of user feedback and website performance metrics, this research provides insights into the broader implications of such platforms in reshaping the dynamics of domestic service provision in contemporary contexts. This website not only prioritizes user-friendliness but also emphasizes being pocket-friendly for consumers. HOW? Here we break drown the hiring process Users can select specific tasks and timeframes, customizing the payment structure based on the work they require. We can establish a timeframe and work schedule for the position we are hiring for. We can establish a timeframe and work schedule for the position we are hiring for. This will ensure clarity and efficiency in our operations, allowing us to effectively manage tasks and save time to get the other opportunities for workers. By setting specific timeframes, we can enhance productivity and ensure that possibilities to get work efficiently. We carefully choose the tasks we hire for, ensuring we pay accordingly and avoid unnecessary expenses. We prioritize selecting tasks for which we are hiring, ensuring that we pay commensurately and avoid unnecessary expenditures. This approach allows us to maintain fiscal responsibility while efficiently allocating resources to essential projects

Academic Women’s Labour During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review and Thematic Analysis of the Literature

<p>The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted academic labour, with women being disproportionately negatively affected. This scoping review provides an exploratory snapshot into the corpus of literature investigating the impact of the pandemic on academic labour. We used a set of criteria to first identify the 86 titles from which we selected 45 as the data set. We analyzed the data on characteristics of location, investigative methods, publication information, and discipline. The findings showed that most of the data were global in context; used primarily qualitative methodologies; published in a wide variety of journals; and spanned diverse disciplines, including science and health, education, business, sociology, and political sciences. We then analyzed the data thematically. The themes we identified were gender inequity, identities and intersectionality, performing work-home binaries, and invisible labour. We added a fifth theme, lived experiences, consisting of women academics’ firsthand accounts. We consider this theme unique, despite its overlap with the other themes, because it is evidence of women academics telling their personal stories. We discuss how our findings show that pandemic conditions worsened existing inequities. The solutions most often cited in the data place emphasis and responsibility on the individual, but we argue that institutions should instead be responsible to redress inequities through improving workplace labour processes. Our research can aid future research on how policy theory can inform socially just policies and practices in the post-pandemic university.</p>

Afterword: Method, voice and politics in the history and philosophy of geography

This commentary reviews the papers in the special issue on the history of the History and Philosophy of Geography Research Group, part of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers). It outlines three main themes: methodological approaches in history and philosophy of geography; the need to consider history and philosophy of geography together; and critical approaches and politics. It draws attention to the important work that HPGRG has done during its four decades of existence. It argues for enduring resonances in the history and philosophy of geography around peace, biographies and invisible labour.

Educators' invisible labour: A systematic review

AbstractThe hidden or overlooked nature of many of educators' professional activities complicates the already difficult task of supporting educators' labour—in both K‐12 and higher education settings. These efforts can be understood as types of invisible labour. Following PRISMA standards, we conducted a systematic literature review to answer a single research question: How have scholars framed educators' professional activities in terms of invisible labour? This systematic review searched 10 educational databases and identified 16 peer‐reviewed journal articles spanning 2011–2021. From thematic analysis of these studies, we developed a model of five types of invisibility that intersect and mask educators' professional efforts: background, care, precarious, identity and remote labour. The review also showed several overall themes related to educators' invisible labour, which we discuss in connection to the literature: effort is often semivisible, invisibility is subjective, effort by marginalised educators is often overlooked, labour in unexpected places often means effort is overlooked, and there are layers of factors masking effort. We then discuss implications for practice, starting with five invisible labour questions to prompt reflection, then how to apply invisible labour as an improvement lens for identifying needs, allocating resources, analysing jobs and tasks, and evaluating performance.

'Not Just a Computer Screen:' Distributed Attunement in Virtual School Environments

Many digital platforms pit consumers or customers and service workers against one another or render human work invisible, concealing human labor for profit and the charismatic allure of automation. When schooling is digitized, what transformations occur to the relationships between teachers, parents, and students, and with what consequences? In pre-pandemic virtual and hybrid schooling, I find that teachers developed alternative strategies to practice caring responsiveness in online environments of low visibility through a process I call "distributed attunement.'' These strategies entailed building holistic relationships, collaborating with student families and fellow teachers, and interpreting student experiences using a combination of platform data and social information. Rather than giving in to digitization as a vehicle for removing or obscuring care work, this study illustrates that teachers centered relationships as core to the virtual schooling experience. The distributed attunement teachers in virtual schools created indicates the impossibility of separating technical and affective labor in a pedagogical context and provide promising sites to develop supports for high-quality online education. Further, teachers' navigation of limited visibility suggests tactics for CSCW researchers concerned with documenting invisible labor in the development of digital systems. Nevertheless, these strategies can be appropriated or undermined by employers in ways that threaten to diminish their efficacy, requiring ongoing advocacy to push for flourishing online schooling options.

Survival Games: Understanding Journalistic and Extra-Journalistic Practices and Pursuits of Small-Town Stringers in South India

ABSTRACT The precarity of journalistic labour has received significant scholarly attention globally, leading to a plethora of studies that attempt to theorise changing journalistic roles, practices, and norms. Whereas precarity in newswork is formulated as the “new normal” in the Global North, the precarious situation of marginal(ised) newsworkers in the Global South has been simply normal. Based on ethnographic research in two small-town formations in South India, this article presents how stringers working in Indian-language newspapers have developed a complex professional identity and shared norms through journalistic and extra-journalistic practices to survive in the field. In doing so, we develop, in a novel way, Bourdieu’s concept of illusio to understand the formation of a professional identity that spans adjacent fields. This paper’s critical engagement with the difficult working lives of stringers and their invisible labour has learnings for analysis of precarity in journalism across the Global North and South.

Care, Ecology, and the Crisis of Eco-social Reproduction: Politicizing More-than-Human Care

Abstract While the ethics of care has considered the possibility that caring occurs for the environment, it often remains silent about the caregiving that humans receive from the environment. This essay suggests that ecological justice requires humans to consider themselves not only as ecological caregivers, but also as care receivers from more-than-human earth dwellers. The argument is built by first accounting for the diverse forms of care that humans receive from other-than-humans. The focus then turns to eco-feminist and eco-Marxist thought to denaturalize this care, highlighting how capitalist economies put other-than-humans to work and appropriate their efforts to maintain the world. The fact that they cannot demand a salary and that the commodification of life increases its depletion leads to an examination of how the conceptual recognition of more-than-human care can be translated politically. The article sketches how the political tensions at work in practices and conceptions of care outlined by feminist and indigenous thought could allow to engage more critically with environmental issues, notably by blending environmental humanities’ emphasis on affective dispositions and attachments towards other-than-humans, with materialist ambitions to highlight exploitation and invisible labor.