Thesis (D Phil (Educational Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Notre Dame, 2007. / Thesis directed by Luke Gibbons and Susan Harris for the Department of English. "April 2007." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 303-314).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed June 11, 2007). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 191-195).

This thesis explores the production of Bangladeshi domestic workers' legal status in Hong Kong. Bangladeshi domestic workers started entering Hong Kong in 2013 and they were expected to gradually become one of the major national groups of domestic workers. But within the first two years, 50 to 60% of them left formal employment. In the migration industry, that phenomenon was referred to as the "runaway crisis". While the runaway crisis took place between 2013 and 2015, some Bangladeshi domestic workers still run away. I would like to reflect upon the migration experiences of Bangladeshi women recruited by two employment agencies and one small association of employment agencies and identify forces impacting their decision-making over their legal status. In doing that, I build upon feminist geography of domestic work and migration studies, Foucault's work on governmentality and Ahmed's affective economies which I extend by elaborating on her understanding of lovability with which I engage to argue for a performative view of legality. The main methodology of the research is feminist ethnography where data were collected during 2-year long field work in Bangladeshi training centers and Hong Kong agencies. The research suggests that domestic workers' legal status is produced in a multi-layered process which includes social structures and power dynamics and affects in migration industry institutions.

M.Com. (Industrial Psychology) / Little is known in South Africa regarding the bullying behaviours faced by domestic workers at the hands of their employers. The objective of this study was thus to explore the nature of these bullying behaviours as experienced by South African domestic workers. The study was approached from a qualitative perspective where 10 participants were interviewed using unstructured interviews. The participants were South African from various parts of Gauteng, working for families from various demographics for at least three years. The interviews allowed for unbridled stories from the world of the domestic workers to emerge, thus consistent with my philosophical views and research strategy. It was found that all the domestic workers had experienced bullying by their employers and that all of these experiences were at least partly shared amongst them. Two categories (verbal and non-verbal) and eleven themes (belittlement, deception, wrongful accusations, lack of regard for wellbeing and basic worker needs, lack of regard for worker safety, abuse of power, racial discrimination, unsatisfactory remuneration, lack of regard for employment laws, threats to employment status and exclusion from decision making) were identified. The bullying was perpetrated by both sexes and all races. The study will add to the existing body of knowledge of bullying and assist policy makers in finding practical solutions to combating bullying.

This thesis examines ways in which domestic workers in South Africa could be included within the scope of existing industrial legislation. At present the legal position of a work force of 862 000 is regulated by the common law contract of service. Socio-economic factors form the background of this investigation,which first sets out to determine whether the common-law contract of employment is capable of equitably regulating the employment relationship. The fallacy of the assumption that individuals agree on the terms of exchange in the employment contract on the basis of juridical equality, and the tenuous nature of the common-law employment relationship in the case of domestic workers are revealed. In the absence of any current statutory minima the employment contract is used to deprive domestic workers of what little protection they enjoy at common law. The two ways in which the individual employee's conditions of service can be protected from terms favouring the stronger of the two contracting parties are discussed. These are collective bargaining and statutory regulation. Difficulties experienced by domestic workers in respect of collective bargaining, whether they be included under the Labour Relations Act or not, are indicated. Proposals for including domestic workers under the Basic Conditions of Employment Act are evaluated in the light of legislation in the United States of America, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Namibia. Ways of minimum-wage fixing are investigated, and it is concluded that the provisions of the Wage Act could be adapted for domestic workers. The 'unfair labour practice'concept is examined and the implications of its application for the domestic labour sector evaluated. It is recommended that the concept 'fairness' in the Labour Relations Act should apply to domestic workers, but that a code of practice be drafted to provide conceptions of 'fairness' as guidelines for employment behaviour. It is suggested that the parties refer disputes to mediation before being granted access to a Small Labour Court established for this purpose. In conclusion a draft code of practice is presented, as a basis for negotiation at a forum representative of the major actors in the domestic labour arena.

Thesis (M. A. (African Languages)) -- University of Limpopo, 2015 / The main aim of this study is to examine abuse of domestic workers with special reference to Xitsonga drama, Gija wanuna wa matimba hi HSV Muzwayine na Bill T Mageza Na Vatulu va ka gaza hi H.S.V. Muzwayine. This study also indicates characters who are abused and those who causes this abuse. The first chapter reveals the general outline of the study, the problem statement, the aim. The most important terms of the study have been explained in this chapter so as to reveal what is expected to be analyzed. Some of the definitions of the Constitution have been defined. Chapter two gives a short summary of the literature Review . Chapter three defines methodology and analyse general themes. Chapter five deals with the general summary of this mini-dissertation. The recommendations for further research have been indicated in this chapter. / The University of Limpopo

This dissertation examines a marginal group in Russian history and literature, domestic servants (dvorovye liudi)— proprietary peasants taken by their masters into the house to fulfill a variety of service roles. I consider this character group as an artistic device, an ideological signifier that draws upon a cluster of reader’s associations, and as a group deeply connected to the master class, the noblemen (dvoriane). Historically, the two were interconnected for generations, sharing domestic space, blood, history, and mutual interests. I argue that contrary to their historical prototypes, the Russian literary master and servant are interdependent, with both participants acutely aware of each other, allowing the implied author to use each to comment on the other and the wider social context of their relations. As the Emancipation (1861) approached, the literary portrayal of the shifting relations between these two groups began to signal the massive changes that shook Russian society during the long nineteenth century. These shifts were often depicted in spatial terms in literary works, with master and servant perpetually re-negotiating their mutual positions within limited spatial economies, most prominently, in the gentry house. Domestic space, where masters and servants coexist and which serves as a microcosm of Russian society, is the ideal space in which authors can navigate unstable social relationships and work out potential solutions to their conflicts. The domestic stage can stand in for the political or social one. How servants navigate space in their master’s home gives clues to the broader issues authors address in their narratives. My dissertation is structured according to the space most significant for the relationship between master and servant: the bedroom or nursery (Introduction), on the road (Chapter 1), private-public space (Chapter 2), and absence of space (Chapter 3). The Conclusion examines the increasing danger of the intimate and often inappropriate proximity of servant and master when combined with irreconcilable class differences and a steadfast resistance from those in power to the redistribution of space. I turn to works of Tolstoy, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Goncharov, Turgenev, Chekhov, and Bunin to examine these spaces. Embedded in historical context, my project addresses the ramifications of the Emancipation and gestures forward to the historical events of the twentieth century. When high expectations for radical redistribution of resources and status were frustrated, transgression and then violence became the means for servants’ mobility, social and spatial. Russian literature from the “long nineteenth-century” captured the instability of the renegotiations of rights and resources between masters and servants. My conclusion sees the gentry house collapse as a result of these clashes.

Although there is a long tradition of research into the relationship between technology and psychological well-being, few studies examine the relationship between mobile phone use and loneliness (Chan, 2015). Far away from their home countries and living in constrained conditions, female domestic workers in particular might experience chronic loneliness, and the mobile phone is a crucial lifeline for them. Using a face-to-face survey of 492 Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong, this dissertation details how different uses of mobile phones are related to different types of loneliness among this vulnerable population. By differentiating between communicative and non-communicative use of the mobile phone, and between social loneliness and emotional loneliness, the results indicate that Filipino domestic workers' non-communicative use of the mobile phone could decrease their social loneliness, while communicative use neither decreases nor increases both social and emotional loneliness. This finding supports the proposition that mobile phone use is beneficial to individuals' psychological well-being and extends the existing literature on the relationship between mobile phone use and loneliness. Most importantly, there is still no a systematic framework to explain the underlying mechanism connecting mobile phone use and loneliness. Based on the technology paradox and the paradoxical impact of mobile phone use on loneliness, this dissertation develops a two-pathway model to illustrate the underlying mechanism. The first pathway postulates that mobile phone use has a positive influence on loneliness through preference for online communication and problematic mobile phone use, which is based upon the theoretical framework of Davis's (2001) cognitive-behavioral model, Caplan's (2003) theory of preference for online communication, and the literature on the bidirectional relationship between technology and psychological well-being. Grounded in the social convoy model (Kahn &Antonucci, 1980; Antonucci, 2001), the second pathway posits that mobile phone use has a negative impact on loneliness through social network availability and social support. The findings show that the two-pathway model indeed exists. In the first pathway, mobile phone use increases emotional loneliness by leading to problematic mobile phone use. In the second pathway, mobile phone use results in decreased social loneliness through increased social support or through the joint impact of social network availability and social support. This dissertation makes theoretical and practical contributions to the field of mobile phone use, not only by developing a two-pathway model to uncover the underlying mechanism connecting mobile phone use with loneliness, but also demonstrates the technology paradox and the paradoxical impact of mobile phone use on loneliness among the Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong. It will be worthwhile to replicate and testify this two-pathway model in other populations, such as elders, adolescents, and young adults.

Until recently, the legal position of domestic workers in South Africa could be described as a relic of the nineteenth century, when the contract of employment and the common law defined the employer-employee relationship. The legal rules which regulate the relationship between the domestic worker and her employer are examined. International labour standards and the legal position of domestic workers in other countries are considered. Cognisance is taken of the social phenomenon which finds domestic workers at the convergence of three lines along which inequality is generated, namely gender, race and class. Furthermore, the unique economic forces at play in this sector are examined. The law will be stretched to its limits when attempting to resolve what is, essentially, a socio-economic problem. However, the working lives of a million people are at stake. The legislature has a constitutional, political and moral responsibility to attend to reform in this sector as a matter of urgency. / Private Law / LL.M.