Project Details
Description
The Swedish RUT and ROT reforms, which allow tax deductions for outsourced household work and maintenance work have since their implementation – in 2007 and 2009 respectively – grown steadily both in terms of the number of individuals using the deductions and the cost they incur to the state. The project departs from the fact that using RUT and ROT services frees up time, and that time gained is larger than the hours deducted, as professional service staff are more efficient performing their respective speciality compared to amateurs (Halldén & Stenberg 2018, RIR 2020). The project ultimately concerns how this freed-up time is negotiated and invested, and the consequences thereof, with a particular focus on changing gender and class relations in the Swedish context. The project serves to generate knowledge pertaining to four overarching research questions:
•How do RUT/ROT users invest the time saved by outsourcing housework? How do users attach meaning to, negotiate and arrange remaining household and maintenance work?
•How does outsourcing housework impact the social status and social mobility trajectories of the RUT/ROT users?
•What are the consequences of outsourcing housework with regards to gender relations and couple dynamics? How, if at all, are gender ideologies and practices within the couple contested and renegotiated?
•In what ways does using RUT services differ from using ROT services? and what are the effects of using both RUT and ROT at the same time? Do they cancel out each other or create synergy effects?
These research questions will be answered by investigating five different themes which each constitute a sub-study, namely 1) Labour supply and career advancement, 2) Gender-equal parenting, 3) Elderly care arrangements, 4) Wellbeing, and 5) Family formation. That is, the sub-studies cut across the overarching research questions presented above.
Methodologically, the project draws upon semi-structured interviews and diary logs of RUT/ROT users, as well as register data comparing RUT/ROT users and non-users.
Project members represent the disciplines of economics, economic history and sociology. The project is funded by Forte.
•How do RUT/ROT users invest the time saved by outsourcing housework? How do users attach meaning to, negotiate and arrange remaining household and maintenance work?
•How does outsourcing housework impact the social status and social mobility trajectories of the RUT/ROT users?
•What are the consequences of outsourcing housework with regards to gender relations and couple dynamics? How, if at all, are gender ideologies and practices within the couple contested and renegotiated?
•In what ways does using RUT services differ from using ROT services? and what are the effects of using both RUT and ROT at the same time? Do they cancel out each other or create synergy effects?
These research questions will be answered by investigating five different themes which each constitute a sub-study, namely 1) Labour supply and career advancement, 2) Gender-equal parenting, 3) Elderly care arrangements, 4) Wellbeing, and 5) Family formation. That is, the sub-studies cut across the overarching research questions presented above.
Methodologically, the project draws upon semi-structured interviews and diary logs of RUT/ROT users, as well as register data comparing RUT/ROT users and non-users.
Project members represent the disciplines of economics, economic history and sociology. The project is funded by Forte.
| Status | Active |
|---|---|
| Effective start/end date | 2023/01/01 → 2025/12/31 |
Funding
- Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research (Forte)
