Show description

136). ” Second, rights can be understood as equivalent to combined capabilities. ). ” Here, the distinction between having rights and being empowered becomes particularly clear, where the latter necessarily involves an acknowledgment of the inherent role of greater structural processes to facilitate, but also to correct, inequalities and deprivation (see here also, Blackmore 2005, 260). In practical terms, Nussbaum has captured the intrinsic relationship between capability and rights by creating a working list of capabilities to ensure that certain capabilities essential to a quality of life are constitutionally secured to the individual.

Chapter 7 builds on this framework by examining the role of capability in the agentic practices of FODWs. By bringing together respondents’ insights with the main findings of the study, Chapter 8 takes the analysis further by discussing the role of livelihoods and human rights in determining FODW capability, and explores how the concept of “capable agency” could be used to better understand, as well as intervene against migrant domestic workers’ oppression. In this way, the chapter is able to identify key directions for future research and policies.

Participant Observation/Observer Participation Bernard (1994) distinguishes between participant observation and observer participation by suggesting that a participant observer does not have to tell the informants what she is researching, whereas an observer participant usually tells the informants what is being examined and researched. However, as de Laine (2000, 119) has observed, “fieldwork roles are varied” and are not fixed entities. Indeed in my fieldwork, the roles of participant observer and observer 11 Interviews were conducted in urban Paris (l’agglomération Paris).