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The Moral Orders of Matchmaking Work: Digitization of Matrimonial Services and the Future of Work

Published: 07 April 2022 Publication History

Abstract

The digitization of matrimonial matchmaking has implications for work but also subjective notions of family, femininity, parent-child relations, community boundaries which this work relies on. This paper is based on qualitative, ethnographic fieldwork with matchmakers working with middle-class, upper-caste Hindu and Parsi communities in metropolitan India and offering services alongside, or as an alternative to the now widely used online matrimonial services. Through our fieldwork, we found all matchmakers engaged with digital technologies' involvement in the ongoing churn around modern choice. Matchmakers engaged with this wider social discourse through ideas of trust, autonomy and genealogy and in doing so they responded to and re/produced varying imaginations of the future of families, community, individuals. Our findings contribute to an understanding of the digitization of a service as well as make a case for widening the conceptual scope of the future of work debate currently dominated by economistic conceptions of work. By paying attention to the links between the productive and reproductive spheres of life, we follow labor and capital into the families and communities they reside in order to see the variety of moral projects capital can be invested in.

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  • (2024)Love, (un)automated: Human matchmaking in the era of online datingJournal of Social and Personal Relationships10.1177/0265407524126472041:11(3293-3315)Online publication date: 21-Jul-2024
  • (2024)Towards Inclusive Futures for Worker WellbeingProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36374148:CSCW1(1-32)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
  • (2023)Seeking Love and Companionship through Streaming: Unpacking Livestreamer-moderated Senior Matchmaking in ChinaProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581195(1-18)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023

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cover image Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction  Volume 6, Issue CSCW1
CSCW1
April 2022
2511 pages
EISSN:2573-0142
DOI:10.1145/3530837
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Published: 07 April 2022
Published in PACMHCI Volume 6, Issue CSCW1

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  1. digitization
  2. future of work
  3. matchmaking
  4. matrimonial matchmaking
  5. technology at work
  6. use of technology at work
  7. work

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  • (2024)Love, (un)automated: Human matchmaking in the era of online datingJournal of Social and Personal Relationships10.1177/0265407524126472041:11(3293-3315)Online publication date: 21-Jul-2024
  • (2024)Towards Inclusive Futures for Worker WellbeingProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36374148:CSCW1(1-32)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
  • (2023)Seeking Love and Companionship through Streaming: Unpacking Livestreamer-moderated Senior Matchmaking in ChinaProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581195(1-18)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023

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