Outsourcing to mitigate domestic work relations: A case study of French home childcare agencies

This article examines mediated forms of employment provided by private companies within the context of the expansion of domestic employment in France since the 1990s. The outsourcing of domestic tasks raises questions about the concrete organisation of services as well as the nature of the relationship between service users and domestic workers. Not formally bound by a hierarchical employment relationship, clients and agency-employed childcare workers perceive domestic relations differently from those involved in direct employment. By closely analysing this tripartite arrangement, the article sheds light on how intermediation reshapes the social space of domesticity by altering the hierarchical dynamics between recipients and providers of domestic services.