Helen Mirfin-Boukouris

Thesis Title:

The Diversity of Labour Practices across varied socio-economic localities within Sheffield City Region, England.

Scope of Research (aims and objectives):

The aim of my PhD is to rethink how we understand the ‘economic’ (Gibson-Graham, 2006) by undertaking a relevant piece of rigorous social science research which recognises the plurality of labour practices in societies (Gibson-Graham, 2006, 2008; Glucksmann, 2005; Williams, 2005, 2006; Williams et al., 2007).My empirical study will involve undertaking a household work practices approach and examine the motivations underpinning the use of different sources of labour. This will be achieved by utilising a variant of what Glucksmann (2005) calls a “total social organisation of labour” (TSOL) approach. This typology will be used as the conceptual framework for understanding the diversity of labour practices across varied socio-economic localities within the Sheffield City Region (SCR), in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. Such an approach will include a critical appraisal of the persistence of the market and non-market realms being portrayed as separate spheres and hostile worlds (Gibson-Graham, 2008; Williams and Zelizer, 2005).This PhD will engage with and explore how the dichotomous depiction of discrete market and non-market spheres is erroneous in failing to recognise that labour practices cannot always be neatly separated into market and non-market endeavours. Using a TSOL approach will allow an appreciation of the multiplicity of labour practices involving a spectrum of labour practices from relatively market oriented to more non-market-oriented labour practices, crosscut by a further spectrum (rather than dualism) from non-monetised, through gift-giving and in-kind reciprocal labour, to monetised labour.