Domestic Labor, Knitting and alternative networks: Knit++

Year 2009, Volume: 1 Issue: 2, 1 - 12, 01.06.2009

Hakan Topal

Abstract

This article explores issues of homeworking and domestic labor with respect to globalized conditions of labor practices by analyzing the possibility of networked alternatives. Each new network provides a potential which needs to be explored according to its successes and failures. Knitting is considered for both its metaphorical and literal implications in Knit++ by xurban_collective from 2002, which critically focused on the possiblity of a social network based on the model of knitting and by taking domestic production as its center of interest. The main concept of this art project was based on a comparison between the technical and spatial conditions of late nineteenth century textile manufacturing with late twentieth century cultural production

Keywords

Networking, homeworking, culture, globalization

Eviçi emek, örgü ve alternatif ağlar: Knit++

Abstract

Bu çalışma evden çalışmaya ve eviçi emeğe dair mevzuları küresel iş pratiği hallerine referansla inceliyor ve ağ kuran alternatifleri analiz ediyor. Her yeni ağ başarısına ve hatalarına göre incelenmesi geren bir potansiyel oluşturuyor. 2002 senesinden başlayan Knit++ by xurban_collective ağında örgü hem mecazi ve hem de edebi anlamlarıyla değerlendiriliyor. Bu proje, örgü modeli üzerinden ve eviçi üretimi merkeze alarak sosyal ağ meselesine eleştirel olarak bakıyordu. Bu sanat projesi on dokuzuncu yüzyıl tekstil üretimi ile yirminci yüzyıl kültürel üretiminin teknik ve mekansal durumu arasındaki karşılaştırmayı esas alıyordu

Keywords

Ağlar, eviçi emek, kültür, küreselleşme

References

• 1xurban_collective. “Knit++ // by xurban_collective //” http://www.xurban.net/scope/knit%2B%2B/index.htm
• 2For further information please visit http://www.xurban.net/notion/oncollectivity/index.html where xurban_collective discusses notion of collectivity and collective production.
• 4Although the term interdisciplinary was excessively used and somewhat aged, for us, it was to key to bring forward different approaches for a salient conceptual strategy. As opposed to a professional conference or an exhibition which gathers similar profession together, we believe that a true interdisciplinary approached is required to have broader understanding.
• 5Jeffrey K. Liker and David Meier, Toyota Talent : Developing Your People the Toyota Way (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007).
• 6Lazzarato, M. “Immaterial labor.” Radical thought in Italy: A potential politics (1996): 133–50.
• 7International Labour Office, Social Protection of Homeworkers (Geneva: International Labor Organization, 1991).
• 8JONATHAN, FRIENDLY. “WORKING AT HOME; THE ELECTRONIC CHANGE: HOUSE BECOMES OFFICE - New York Times.” New York Times Online. http://www.nytimes.com/1986/05/15/garden/working-at-home-the-electronic-change-housebecomes-office.html?scp=4&sq=homeworker&st=nyt.
• 9Some of the famous examples include Steve Jobs of Apple Inc and Bill Gates of Microsoft, who were first started their business in home garages by providing services to bigger industries such as IBM.
• 10Annie Phizacklea and Carol Wolkowitz, Homeworking Women : Gender, Racism and Class at Work (London ; Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 1995), 31.
• 11Committee on Employment and Social Policy – International Labor Organization. “GB.274/ESP/4 - Governing Body.” http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/gb/docs/gb274/esp-4.htm#Homeworkers%20in%20the%20global%20economy: %20The%20Asian%20cr.
• 12International Labor Office, Social Protection of Homeworkers.
• 13For instance Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor report states that homeworking reaches to 15% of total non-agricultural employment in US. Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. “Work At Home in 2004 Summary.” http://www.bls.gov/news.release/homey.nr0.htm.
• 14S Allen and C Wolkowitz, Homeworking: Myths and Realities (MacMillan Education, Limited, 1987), 105.
• 15R Fishman, Bourgeois Utopias: The Rise and Fall of Suburbia (Basic Books, 1989), Robert Fishman, Bourgeois Utopias : The Rise and Fall of Suburbia (New York: Basic Books, 1987).
• 16Phizacklea and Wolkowitz, Homeworking Women : Gender, Racism and Class at Work, 23.
• 17Mutari, E., H. Boushey, and W. Fraher. Gender and political economy: incorporating diversity into theory and policy. ME Sharpe Inc, 1997.
• 18Caroline Gatrell, Emboying Women's Work (New York: Open University Press, 2008), 147.
• 19Lazzarato, Maurizio. “Immaterial labor.” Radical thought in Italy: A potential politics (1996): 133–50.
• 21Countries such as Iran, Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia have a patriarchal morality that strongly emphasizes family life as the most important part of society. This compels women to remain in the domestic sphere. In this respect, in an Islamic society homeworking effectively works both with the patriarchal hierarchy and free market rules, providing the “best option” for the exploitation based on the sexual division of labor.
• 23This oral traditions in fact mostly is taken out of historical processes because it was “women’s activity” happening in domestic sphere.
• 24Providing the fact that the user has necessary means to access technologies that allow them to be connected to the Internet. Since the price of those technical devises dropped considerably, and there are many public facilities (including internet caf s) providing the é service, we can positively argue about its accessibility.
• 25Gilles Deleuze and F lix Guattari, é A Thousand Plateaus : Capitalism and Schizophrenia (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1987).
• 26Military special operation units usual acts like self sustained independent groups to operate beyond enemy lines with no communication with headquarters, mimicking cell type militant organizations.
• 27Deleuze and Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus : Capitalism and Schizophrenia.
• 29Deleuze and Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus : Capitalism and Schizophrenia, 476.
• 30Gilles Deleuze and Se n Hand, á Foucault (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1988).