Au Pair

Beschreibung

Many families leave their children for years to be looked after byyoung people about whom they know next to nothing, from places theyhave barely heard of. Who are these au pairs, why do they come andwhat is their experience of this arrangement? Do they, for theirpart, find that they are treated as one of the family, and wouldthey even want to be? After a year of careful research, this bookshows how most of our assumptions and expectations about au pairsare wrong. This is the first book devoted to the lives of au pairs, theirleisure as well as their work time. We see this world from the eyesof the visitors, and their unique perspective on what lies at theheart of our family life. The book does not flinch from documentingthe realities of the situation D the racism and theproblematic behaviour of the au pairs themselves, as much as theignorance and exploitation they can be subject to. The book is acase study in how to come to feel modern life empathetically fromthe viewpoint of one of those many migrant groups we take forgranted and rely on but rarely try to understand.

Autor*in

Daniel Miller

Themen in »Au Pair«

Sociology Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie

Stimmen zu »Au Pair«

"A great read and an intriguing academic study ... Richin content not only for anyone who thinks about employing orbecoming an au pair, but also for everyone scientificallyinterested in an ethnography of this specificinstitution." Anthropos "Pick up this book when you want a guilt-free escape from yourday-to-day academic work. This is a vivid and engaging account ofthe life of Slovak au pairs in London. Written for the specialistand non-specialist alike, it offers great insight into the problemsof intercultural communication, structured by the fundamentalcontradictions of the institution of the au pair." Journal of Intercultural Studies "Miller and Burikova's criticisms are all too real" The Times "A highly engaging read, which begs the question: why is morescholarly work not written in this way?" Social & Cultural Geography "A useful resource for all interested in both migration and genderstudies. It challenges steretypes on the one hand of the au pair asan uneducated, poor and sexualised object and of host parents ascold, uncaring and exploitative on the other. It provides a hugeamount of rich ethnographic data that challenge readers to thinkdifferently about family life, domestic tasks and the migration ofyoung women." Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies "With its fine-grained ethnographic detail, skillfully presented invivid prose, this book illuminates every aspect of the hopes,fantasies and frustrations that constitute the frequently troubledties and misunderstandings between au pairs and their employers. Ahuge pleasure to read, Au Pair provides a definitive, indispensabletext for addressing this increasingly prevalent facet of familylife, with its own suggestions for improving the lives of both aupairs and the families in which they reside." Lynne Segal, Birkbeck College and author of WhyFeminism? "A long overdue book that deals sensitively with the experiences ofboth au pairs and host families. It moves between individualstories and their social context to reveal the tensions and thepotential of this unique relationship." Bridget Anderson, University of Oxford
()

Details

Link teilen