This project supports the dissertation research of a student of cultural anthropology from the University of Chicago. The research will take place in Sri Lanka where the student will study two relatively new export-oriented garment factories which hire a predominantly female labor force. Using ethnographic techniques of in-depth interviews and participant observation as well as studies of local and regional archives, the student will examine how the experience of work in these factories changes the women's notions of themselves as people and citizens of the nation. Women are traditionally the store-house of traditional cultural values, and the student hypothesizes that work in the factories, which explicitly aim to change their worker's identities to relate more to the national state and less to their local group, will produce conflict and change in the women and their families. This research is important because the process of global market change has brought foreign-owned or dominated work-places to many traditional parts of the world. Understanding how the experience of work in these trans-national sites affects the women workers, and through them their households and families, will help us understand and deal with the stresses and tensions that the expansion of the global market produces.

Agency
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Institute
Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (BCS)
Type
Standard Grant (Standard)
Application #
9419874
Program Officer
Stuart Plattner
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
1995-02-01
Budget End
1996-07-31
Support Year
Fiscal Year
1994
Total Cost
$6,000
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Chicago
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Chicago
State
IL
Country
United States
Zip Code
60637