- Seattle, Washington, United States
Kim England
University of Washington, Geography, Faculty Member
- University of Washington, Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies, Faculty Memberadd
Feminist care ethics offers a broad framework for making moral, political and policy decisions. We focus on care through the lens of healthcare, specifically addressing immigration, citizenship and belonging in the context of the... more
Feminist care ethics offers a broad framework for making moral, political and policy decisions. We focus on care through the lens of healthcare, specifically addressing immigration, citizenship and belonging in the context of the provision of healthcare in the UK. We focus on three different groups of immigrants: two well-established immigrant communities; international nurses recruited for the National Health Service (NHS); and asylum seekers released from detention centres. Through these three instances, we examine themes of inclusion and exclusion, access to care and self-care and demonstrate the ways that the UK’s healthcare policies are interwoven with differential power relations.
Research Interests:
Home care work will be among the fastest growing jobs in the USA in the next 10 years, linked to the increase in people aged over 65. Located at the intersection of health care, social policy and the state, home care work is notable for... more
Home care work will be among the fastest growing jobs in the USA in the next 10 years, linked to the increase in people aged over 65. Located at the intersection of health care, social policy and the state, home care work is notable for its low pay, job insecurity and irregular hours. The legal and economic precarity of home care workers has roots in the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). We analyse the FLSA and subsequent amendments regarding home care workers, as a vehicle for exploring American state intervention into and apparent retreat from the social safety net and promoting collective well-being.
In many countries of the global North, families increasingly rely on live-in care- givers to look after their children and elderly. Although much care work remains unpaid and informal, several states have set up a variety of migration and... more
In many countries of the global North, families increasingly rely on live-in care- givers to look after their children and elderly. Although much care work remains unpaid and informal, several states have set up a variety of migration and labour regimes to guarantee a steady supply of workers to provide paid live-in care in the home. This paper contributes to a broadening of the focus of labour geogra- phy beyond “productive” labour by factoring in the theoretical perspective of social reproduction into the debates on constrained agency. Our aim is to identify the mechanisms that make these regimes function for employers and employees, and their consequences for the social reproduction of the workers. To do so we compare live-in care schemes in the UK, Canada, Austria and Switzerland and examine the ways in which live-in care is differentially institutionalised. Our pol- icy analysis in these four countries shows that the constrained agency of the workers does not solely stem from their status as migrants, but is produced by the nexus of specific migration, care and gendered labour regimes. Furthermore, we argue that we need to extend our perspective beyond the immediate work context to see how live-in care regimes not only infringe, but also enable, the social reproduction of the workers – a fact that has often been neglected by existing research.
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Research Interests:
Research Interests:
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This chapter examines the changing white-collar office as a workplace for women in the United States. Focusing on clerical work, a job ranked as one of the top occupations for women for over a century, the chapter examines the clerical... more
This chapter examines the changing white-collar office as a workplace for women in the United States. Focusing on clerical work, a job ranked as one of the top occupations for women for over a century, the chapter examines the clerical worker as the “new woman” and a key figure in the history of women’s work, with the office playing a similar role in modernity whether as an icon of a cultural moment or as an architectural style. In exploring these themes in the context of the changing cultural histories and micro-geographies of clerical workers and the spatiality of the office in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the chapter points to the gendered workplace implications of the rise of service-based economy and its role in the everyday lives of women.
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Under mounting pressure from women, Canada introduced employment policies to address the gender wage gap and women's access to a wider range of jobs. The policies were generally introduced between the late 1970s and early 1990s. Over time... more
Under mounting pressure from women, Canada introduced employment policies to address the gender wage gap and women's access to a wider range of jobs. The policies were generally introduced between the late 1970s and early 1990s. Over time these policies have shifted from focusing on equality to emphasising equity. Two pivotal policies are pay equity and employment equity. In the end, the impact of these policies is difficult to assess. Keeping the European situation in mind we argue that they be considered as a component of broader changes rather than as specific causes of improving the situation of women in the Canadian labour market.
The concept of positionality was introduced into human geography by way of feminist and poststructural interpretations in the early 1990s. Positionality highlights how people, including researchers, come to know and interpret the world... more
The concept of positionality was introduced into human geography by way of feminist and poststructural interpretations in the early 1990s. Positionality highlights how people, including researchers, come to know and interpret the world from different social locations; positionality shapes research, and may inhibit or enable certain research insights.
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I draw on my own experiences as a straight feminist geographer to address questions regarding teaching sexualities in geography. First, I look 'sexing' and 'queering' geography curricula, not only upper level undergraduate and graduate... more
I draw on my own experiences as a straight feminist geographer to address questions regarding teaching sexualities in geography. First, I look 'sexing' and 'queering' geography curricula, not only upper level undergraduate and graduate courses that lend themselves to discussions of sexualities, compulsory heterosexuality, and heterosexism, but also lower level undergraduate courses. Second, a sexual dissident's first self-disclosure to another person typically takes place in college. As such, I discuss strategies that aim to make universities and classrooms less heterosexist and lesbo/homophobic. Finally, I discuss my dilemmas around the disclosure of my sexuality in the context of teaching.
Research Interests:
Feminist and post-structural challenges to objectivist social science demand greater reflection by the researcher with the aim of producing more inclusive methods sensitive to the power relations in fieldwork Following a discussion of... more
Feminist and post-structural challenges to objectivist social science demand greater reflection by the researcher with the aim of producing more inclusive methods sensitive to the power relations in fieldwork Following a discussion of contrasting approaches to these power relations, I present a reflexive examination of a research project on sexual identities. My reflections highlight some of the key ethical questions that face researchers conducting fieldwork, especially with regard to the relationship between the researcher and those being researched. My discussion of these dilemmas reflect the situated and partial nature of our understanding of “others.” I argue that the researcher’s positionality and biography directly affect fieldwork and that fieldwork is a dialogical process which is structured by the researcher and the participants.