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Migration and changing divisions of labour: gender relations and economic change in Koguta, western Kenya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Elizabeth Francis
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Extract

A case study from western Kenya is used to explore the links between labour migration, rural economic decline and changes in key domestic relationships. Twentieth-century transformations in the regional political economy, together with processes of differentiation, have been closely bound up with changes, and continuities, in relationships within households, and in the ideologies which justify them. A central concept in the analysis is that of divisions of labour, which covers the division of tasks, divisions of spheres of responsibility and authority and contributions to the reproduction of the household. Changes in all these have shaped, and have been shaped, by the trajectory of economic decline in the region. Changing divisions of labour have been slow, piecemeal, non-uniform and non-linear. They have been the subject of intense conflicts within households which have centred on questions of access to and control over resources and in which, as well as power relations, ideas about rights and responsibilities have been crucially important.

Résumé

Une étude de cas à l'ouest du Kenya est utilisée ici afin d'explorer les liens entre la migration de la main-d'oeuvre, le déclin économique rural et les changements au sein des rapports familiaux principaux. Les transformations au vingtiéme siécle dans l'économie politique régionale, ensemble avec les processus de différentiation, ont été étroitement liés avec les changements et continuités dans les rapports au sein des ménages, et dans les idéologies qui les justifient.

Un concept central à cette analyse est celui des divisions du travail, qui recouvrent les divisions des tâches, les divisions des sphères de responsabilité et d'autorité et des contributions à la reproduction du ménage. Des changements dans toutes ces sphéres ont formé et ont été formés par la trajectoire du déclin économique dans la région. Les divisions du travail ont changées lentement, petit à petit, sans uniformité, et d'une maniére non-linéaire. Elles ont été le sujet de conflits dans les ménages qui ont du faire face á des questions d'accés et de contrôle se rapportant aux ressources, et dans lesquels, les idées concernant les droits et responsabilités, aussi bien que les rapports de pouvoir, ont été extremément importantes.

Type
Making a living in rural Kenya
Information
Africa , Volume 65 , Issue 2 , April 1995 , pp. 197 - 216
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1995

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