Homemaking in New Zealand: thinking through the mutually constitutive relationship between domestic material objects,heterosexuality and home

This article explores the homemaking practices of heterosexual couples who live in Hamilton, Aotearoa New Zealand. Specifically, it examines the role of domestic material objects in the mutual production of heterosexuality and home. The article draws on data collected from joint and individual semi-structured interviews and self-directed photography with 14 heterosexual couples living in monogamous co-residential relationships. It offers an analysis of the ways in which heterosexual couples use ordinary household objects to constitute, consolidate and sometimes undermine their gendered and sexed subjectivities and interpersonal relationships. A focus on domestic material objects offers an opportunity for challenging normative assumptions about the relationship between heterosexuality and domestic space.     

Fertility differentials between Korean and international marriage couples in South Korea

Amid high hopes that the rise of international marriage will boost fertility rates in South Korea, this article assesses fertility differentials between Korean and international marriage couples. Espousing the theoretical position that fertility decisions need to be viewed from a couple perspective, we seek to build a new framework that goes beyond the traditional immigrant fertility literature. To test the formulated hypotheses, we compared fertility hazards among four couple types using the 2012 National Survey on Multicultural Families and the 2012 National Fertility Survey: couples consisting of a Korean wife and a Korean husband (Korean couples), couples consisting of a foreign wife and a Korean husband (foreign-wife couples), couples consisting of a Korean wife and a foreign husband (foreign-husband couples), and couples consisting of a foreign wife and a foreign husband (foreign couples). The results from Cox regression models revealed that the wives of Korean couples experienced the highest fertility hazards for the first birth, followed by the wives of foreign-wife couples. Furthermore, wives of Korean couples took the shortest time to give birth to the second child, followed by wives of foreign-husband and then foreign-wife couples. We discussed theoretical bearings of these findings and outlined a promising line of further research.     

With the mine in the veins: emotional adjustments in female partners of Chilean mining workers

This research analyzes emotional adjustments and imbalances experienced by female partners of Chilean mining workers, resulting from interacting demands of work, intimacy, family, and handling money, as well as tensions caused by miners’ prolonged absences and dissimilar schedules, negatively impacting family encounters. The research is circumscribed in northern Chile, in the Region of Antofagasta, epicenter of worldwide copper mining. Through a qualitative design, 36 in-depth interviews were held and a sociodemographic survey of mining workers’ partners. Among the findings are power conflicts derived from the role that workers and female partners have as a couple, in managing money and in emotional aspects, exacerbated by gender constructions of ‘the paid miner’ and ‘female partner’. Female partners express their challenges in managing the family’s economic resources as well as emotional aspects between the partners.