Family and work in contemporary society: the perception of home workers in the footwear industry on the merger of the workplace to the domestic environment

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse the relationship of families that have their homes not only as a place to live but also as a place to work, something that occurs because the shoes are manufactured at home for footwear industries. A qualitative and ethnographic method were used in this study. The obtainment of the data happened in two ways: an exploratory one and a focalized one. In the exploratory part, there was an observation in ten residences of a district where, in most of the houses, the work was informal and domestic. In the focalized part, nineteen individual interviews were made with members of six families. The data obtained in the interviews were analysed through a hermeneutic- dialectic perspective. The results show that the most part of the interviewed individuals generically characterized the family and they did it reproducing a speech based in the models that are socially considered as the ideal ones. Taking into account the fact that the families have their houses as a place to live and to work, most of the interviewees take into account the matter of time, because they work  longer as they don’t have a schedule to follow, and it  might disturb the relationship  among the family members, even being in the domestic environment.  Positive and negative points of this working condition were pointed out, being positive working at home because they save the money  of transportation and the workers can be closer to their children, while also being financially worthwhile.  On the other hand, this relationship may cause problems between the couples and also between the parents and their children.