Dans un contexte de déclin de la norme de « l’homme gagne-pain », s’appuyant sur une démarche pluridisciplinaire, cettethèse revisite le cadre d’analyse du travail domestique. Un premier chapitre adopte une perspective internationale incluant lespays en développement (PED) en vue de discerner la diversité et la singularité des institutions du travail. Vient ensuitel’étude du cas de l’Uruguay qui montre une rupture récente dans le legs, certes hybride, des institutions du travail libérales etla mise en place d’un modèle dit post-libéral, où la négociation collective occupe une place clé, y compris aux marges dusalariat, en intégrant le service domestique. La réflexion théorique renvoie sur le plan des structures à l’unité définitionnelledu mode de production domestique, souligne les limites des principaux corpus – la rationalité instrumentale de la théorienéoclassique et le fonctionnalisme de l’approche marxiste – et explore le renouveau conceptuel porté par le care dès lorsqu’il introduit la dimension interpersonnelle et les affects. Cette recherche s’empare des défis méthodologiques soulevés parles enquêtes emploi du temps (EET) dans les PED, outil privilégié pour mesurer le temps de travail domestique à partir de lacollecte de données sur les activités quotidiennes. L’exploitation de l’EET uruguayenne (MUT-ECH 2007) permetd’identifier les déterminants de la charge domestique des conjointes et teste pour les biactives l’hypothèse dite d’autonomieet ses prolongements. Leur revenu en termes absolus constitue un facteur notable diminuant le volume domestique qu’ellesaccomplissent. Le service domestique est la seule forme d’externalisation exerçant un effet substitutif. Toutefois, ces résultatssont nuancés au regard du caractère composite du travail domestique et de son inégale répartition dans le couple. / In a context of decline of the male breadwinner standard, based on a pluridisciplinary approach, this thesis revisits thedomestic labour framework analysis. The first chapter carries an international perspective including developing countries(DCs) in order to discern the diversity and singularity of labour institutions. Follows the case study of Uruguay pointing out arecent break in the legacy, certainly hybrid, with liberal labour institutions and the implementation of a model labelled aspost-liberal, where collective bargaining takes a major role, including at the margins of wage labour, i.e. integrating paiddomestic workers. Theoretical arguments refer, in terms of structures, to the definitional unit of the domestic mode ofproduction, underline the limits of main corpus – the instrumental rationality of the neoclassical theory and functionalism ofthe Marxist approach – and explore the renew involving the concept of care in its consideration of the interpersonaldimension and affects. This research examines the methodological challenges raised by time use surveys (TUSs) in DCs, thistool particularly adapted to measure the domestic labour time through the collection of data on daily activities. Using theUruguayan TUS (MUT-ECH 2007), we identify the determinants of domestic burden carried by wives and test for dualearner,the so-called autonomy hypothesis and its extensions. Their earnings considered in absolute terms are a key factordecreasing the domestic volume they do. The domestic service represents the only form of outsourcing exercising asubstitution effect. However, these results are modified when considering the composite nature of domestic labour and itsunequal marital distribution

In the reading of the servants in examples from the period 1920-1950, the servant question is invoked to expose the workings of class. The servants in these narratives of Bowen, Green, Taylor, Waugh, Mansfield and Panter-Downes, lady’s maids, housekeepers, nannies, a butler and a chauffeur, are in thrall to the collective structures of societal ordering, and reluctant with respect to social mobility. Class was not fully being negotiated in this period, in fact little change was visible. Fer example intimacy, such as that between the lady’s maid and her mistress, meant that class confrontation was unlikely. The nanny showed that culturally constructed mechanisms such as nostalgia could be employed to discourage the desire for change. In terms of the socio-historical context any transformation in the make-up of domestic life – that is, the move towards homes without servants - was a fairly gradual business. But, there was a widespread belief in a change that had not really taken place – and that certainly had not taken place within domestic service. Any transformation of society was superficial; the governing ranks would not permit their disempowerment through genuine class change. I contend that the literature supports this perspective. Servants desire subservience; they find comfort in the familiarity of the system of household ranking-by-status. In the process, authority itself is portrayed as being less immutable, more malleable and thereby equipped for the future. In this sense the narratives read in this thesis go to make up a literature of resistance, in refutation of the overwhelming narrative of the time, progressing instead the notion that class must persist with its boundaries intact, as its hegemony is desirable and necessary for the smooth, successful operation of society.

I mitt examensarbete har jag undersökt min prekära situation som konsthantverkare och hemtjänstpersonal. Arbetet innehåller reflektioner från den prekära situation det innebär att arbeta i hemtjänsten och att vara brukare. Jag belyser mina medvetna och omedvetna översättningsprocesser från hemtjänsten till mitt konsthantverkskap. Arbetsprocessen i verkstaden binds ihop med prekariatets mindre synliga delar. Identitet, tillhörighet och gemenskap.

This thesis serves to highlight the significance of food and diet in the servant problem narrative of eighteenth and nineteenth-century Britain and the role of food in master-servant relationships as a source of conflict. The study also shows how attitudes towards servant labor, wages, and perquisites resulted in food-related theft. Employers customarily provided regular meals, food, drink, or board wages and tea money to their domestic servants in addition to an annual salary, yet food and meals often resulted in contention as evidenced by contemporary criticism and increased calls for legislative wage regulation. Differing expectations of wage components, including food and other perquisites, resulted in ongoing conflict between masters and servants. Existing historical scholarship on the relationship between British domestic servants and their masters or mistresses in context of the servant problem often tends to place focus on themes of gender and sexuality. Considering the role of food as a fundamental necessity in the lives of servants provides a new approach to understanding the servant problem and reveals sources of mistrust and resentment in the master-servant relationship.