Normative Violence in Domestic Service: A Study of Exploitation, Status, and Grievability

Rohit Varman (), Per Skålén (), Russell W. Belk () and Himadri Roy Chaudhuri ()
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Rohit Varman: University of Birmingham
Per Skålén: Karlstad University
Russell W. Belk: Kraft Foods Canada Chair in Marketing, York University
Himadri Roy Chaudhuri: XLRI

Journal of Business Ethics, 2021, vol. 171, issue 4, No 1, 645-665

Abstract: Abstract This paper contributes to business ethics by focusing on consumption that is characterized by normative violence. By drawing on the work of Judith Butler this study of kajer lok—a female subaltern group of Indian domestic service providers—and their higher status clients shows how codes of status-based consumption shaped by markets, class, caste, and patriarchy create a social order that reduces kajer lok to “ungreivable” lives. Our study contributes to business ethics by focusing on exploitation and coercion in consumption rather than in production and of woman rather than of men. It adds to consumer research by revealing how social distinctions not only manifest in status contests in which symbolic power is at stake but also may produce violent exploitation and ungrievable lives.

Keywords: Consumer ethics; Exploitation; Judith butler; Normative violence; Status consumption; Grievability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:171:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1007_s10551-020-04444-1

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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-020-04444-1

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