Labor geographies

Analysis of the homecare market in the city of Zurich

German title: "Marktanalyse - Care in Zürcher Privathaushalten", project duration: Nov. 2011 to March 2012, funded by the office for gender equality of the city of Zurich, project chairs: Prof. Dr. Christian Berndt & Dr. Karin Schwiter, project execution: Jasmine Truong

The study aims at providing an overview of recent developments and the current state of the homecare market in the city of Zurich. It will identify and characterize the private companies which offer care services to elderly people in private homes.

For more information on the topic see:

Jasmine Truong (2011) Arbeit, Arbeitsidentität, Arbeitsplatz. Die neuen Wanderarbeiterinnen der Sorgewirtschaft. Masterthesis at the Department of Geography of the University of Zurich. Download thesis (PDF, 1.0 Mb) (in German) 

Understanding inequalities of access to spaces of paid work: The intersection of gender and ethnicity

Duration: 2011-2013
(Funding: SNF, NRP 60; Yvonne Riaño & Doris Wastl-Walter (PL) Dep. of Geography, University of Bern; André Aschwanden & Katharina Limacher Dep. of Geography, University of Bern; Elisabeth Bühler, University of Zurich)
This joint research project between the geography departments of the universities of Zurich and Bern (PL Bern) is carried out in the framework of the National Research Program NRP 60 ‘Gender Equality’. An important aim is to understand how women’s access to the labour market is related to the various arrangements made with their household partners regarding division of housework and paid employment. Three sets of questions will be examined in order to contribute to a better understanding of the intersection of gender and ethnicity creating different situations of inequality in the field of work: (a) how the intersection of gender and ethnicity/national origin generates unequal access to paid employment; (b) the extent to which individuals succeed in applying, maintaining and further developing their professional qualifications in the labour market, (c) the strategies that individuals devise to apply and acquire new professional qualifications. The analysis will combine macro- and micro perspectives and apply quantitative and qualitative methods. See Abstract (pdf: 130KB (PDF, 127 Kb))

Clean Cities, Dirty Work? Geographies of Commercial Cleaning in Frankfurt and Nuernberg

(Funding WISAG AG; Christian Berndt and Peter Latzke)
How are clean places being produced? This is the main question of this research project. “Cleaning” would be the gut reaction, but this is far too shortsighted. Clean rooms are an integral part of our immaterial knowledge economy, whether materialized in consumer spaces such as urban entertainment centers, hotels or the inner city, or the shiny offices of highly specialized service firms. The work that is invested into these spaces is normally made invisible and literally put out of sight, given that in the perfect world of the knowledge economy, dirt and waste are a threat to smoothly operating value chains and urban spectacles. It is in this context that this research project seeks to lift the veil, focusing on the workers, and putting emphasis on daily cleaning practices, the disciplinary regime of formal and informal rules and norms, and the way in which daily work has changed as a brave new world of immaterial production and symbolic consumption turns its back on those who literally perform contemporary urban geographies with their hands.

Life Plans. Young Adults caught between Individuality and Gendered Norms.

(Karin Schwiter)
How do young adults plan their lives? What do they expect from their futures? How do they anticipate their working careers? Do they consider having children? How would they want to organise work and care in their future families? And to what extent do their expectations (re)produce gendered norms? The study takes a discourse theoretical perspective and explores these questions by analysing narrative interviews with young adults aged 24 to 26 in the German speaking part of Switzerland. (more)