ANNOUNCEMENTS
This research aims to build a theoretical framework of negative agency in the domain of domestic work relationship. Negative agency is exercised when an individual agency coincides, manipulates and controls that of another individual consciously/ unconsciously in everyday interpersonal relationships. A negative agency relationship leads to the reproduction of systems of domination and hierarchy in two domains: state and its instruments at macro level, domestic environment at micro- level. This study however, focuses on the relationship between individuals from the same gender at domestic level, to be more precise at household level. Thus, the research underlines the negative agency framework between the female domestic employer and her female domestic worker. This study relies on a fieldwork conducted in an elite neighbourhood in Delhi.
The central argument of the thesis focusses on how agency precedes social structures in many ways. This is due the relational aspect of agency, as one’s agency can potentially be structural constraint for another individual. Domestic workers and their employers both function as negative agents towards each other in terms of curtailing and overriding each other’s capabilities and agency formations. While the thesis also highlights the contemporary structural changes in domestic work relationship. It does so through a focus on social interactions in terms of family relationships, intra- generational conflicts, patriarchal forces that directly impact the interaction order between the worker and the employer. Issues relating to class, caste and the dependencies of workers and employers will also be discussed at length.
Keywords: Structure, Agency, Negative Agency, Domestic workers, Gatekeeping, Negative Agents.
Disclaimer: For ethical masking, all the names of the respondents, including the name of the field site, are pseudonyms. All the details that may reveal the identity of the respondents have been carefully anonymized.
