ABSTRACT
This volume aims to continue the development of such empirical work and conceptualisation but to tilt the focus more onto gender constraint and agency in the public sphere. This is an interdisciplinary collection, written by social scientists with historical sensitivity and by historians with conceptual awareness. Interdisciplinary conversations can provide great insight but also present real problems, and the strengths and diffi culties are often two sides of the same coin. Perspectives from many disciplines can shed new light on issues, like De Regt’s chapter, which interrogates the economic relationship of domestic service from a cultural anthropologist’s point of view. But also scholars can be engrossed in the issues and methodological frameworks of their own disciplines, which means that they do not always sing from the same hymn sheet. What is exciting about this volume is the amount of complementary insight that people from different disciplines focusing upon different times and places can bring to an exploration of gender and migration. This introduction will review some aspects of recent writing about gender and migration and consider the contribution this volume makes to the empirical and conceptual picture.
