Domestic service is being reinstated by the middle classes. Demand for domestic labour has increased in Britain in recent years. For some, hiring domestic help is nothing new, but for the majority of British households, it is beyond the range of immediate experience. This text sets out to investigate the resurgence of demand for waged domestic labour in Britain during the 1980s and early 1990s, and the consequent growth of a new servant class.

Servicing the Middle Classes investigates the recent rise in demand by middle class families for waged domestic labour and the consequent growth of a new servant' class.
Examining the position of nannies and cleaners, the authors explore the national socio-economic trends which have led to this new phenomenon and the profound changes this reflects in our concepts of motherhood and class and gender relations.

Living with Things provides an account of consumption in terms of its centrality to our dwelling practices. Its focus is on the home, particularly on the movement of people and things within and through it in everyday habitation. Here dwelling is seen as an activity, as doing things with and to the things to hand around us. Being 'at home' is achieved through living amongst things, as well as amongst people and other non-human presences, such as pets and gardens. Being at home is achieved through what we do with objects, the things that are acquired and stored, that linger around in our...

Based primarily on a former coal-mining village in Northeast England, this book explores practices of inhabitation, from moving in or being modernized to the daily accommodation of sleep and children. It provides a demonstration of what happens to consumption research when it comes home and is positioned not in sites of exchange but within the home and in households. 204 pp. (Sociology)