Project description
The marketisation of domestic labour and its consequences
Once performed unpaid within the family or informally between individuals, household cleaning is increasingly provided by businesses that employ workers, establish standards, and sell these services for profit. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the DOMLAB project will explore the marketisation of household cleaning services through private agencies in Australia and the UK. It will explore how domestic labour is reorganised and transformed into a profit-oriented sector, focusing on the implications for labour relations and workers. Examining contemporary practices alongside diaries and household manuals from the 19th and 20th centuries, the project will trace changes in domestic labour from the servant model to agency-mediated work.
Objective
This project investigates the marketisation of household cleaning through private agencies Australia and the United Kingdom, examining how domestic labour is reorganised, standardised, and transformed into a profit-oriented service sector. Once performed unpaid within families or informally between individuals, cleaning is increasingly delivered through businesses that hire workers, set standards, and sell these services for profit. The research asks how agency-mediated cleaning reshapes labour relations and what the consequences are for workers. By focusing on agency-mediated cleaning, this project opens a new research field: it reveals how domestic labour is being formalised into a distinct industry, with its own managerial logics, contractual practices, and profit-making strategies. Studying it matters because it shows how an essential form of everyday work is being transformed into a commercial industry. Contemporary evidence will be interpreted alongside nineteenth- and twentieth-century sources in the UK, such as diaries, autobiographies, and household manuals. This allows for a dual comparison: (1) historically, by tracing continuities and ruptures in UK domestic labour from the servant model to modern agency-mediated work; and (2) geographically, by analysing patterns in UK cleaning alongside contemporary Australian practices, identifying shared and divergent organisational logics and labour experiences.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-GF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
BS8 1QU BRISTOL
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.