Organising the care economy: shifting spatial strategies of domestic worker activism

Nik Theodore and Beth Gutelius

Chapter 26 in Handbook of Labour Geography, 2025, pp 433-446 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter examines the shifting spatial strategies of domestic worker organising in the United States, with a focus upon how labour organisers have altered their spatial praxis (Herod 2001) in response to the restructuring of the care economy. We begin by presenting a profile of the labour force and its employment conditions before examining how organising is being rescaled as industry structures shift. Domestic worker organisers have long relied upon individualised, worker-to-worker outreach, which has proven effective in forging worker solidarity, building organisations and strengthening social networks. However, in the 2020s they must now confront an unprecedented challenge: the emergence of a new platform-based economy for care work, one that aggregates the workforce at a scale never before seen. The rescaling of care economy labour markets heralds a new era for domestic worker organising, one that will require novel responses if recent gains are to be maintained and extended.

Keywords: Domestic workers; Care economy; Labour standards; Labour organising; Platform economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781785363399
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