Finding the household

The household' is a very important unit for data collection not just for socio-economic research but also for various agencies en gaged in planning, development work and welfare schemes. Yet, the very concept of household suffers from definitional weak nesses and confusion. The result is that most data based on the household are either inac curate or incomplete and often fail to con sider important linkages, variations and nuances.

The purpose of this volume - the fifth and final one in the Women and the Household in Asia is to explore conceptual and methodological issues relating to the house hold as a unit of data collection. The eleven original essays explore various important is sues, including the formation and inner dynamics of households, the linkage be tween individual households and the wider processes and structures of society, and dif fering and changing notions of family and kinship.

This volume exposes the erroneous view that there is an undifferentiated Asian model of the position of women and of gen der relations by showing that the status of women varies in accordance with class, ethnicity, caste, culture, and religion among other factors. The contributors view the household as a basic entity the primary group in an elaborate system of societal groupings. They critically examine the way the household is conceived and used in re search and in official surveys (including cen sus operations) and highlight the limitations of the major data systems.

The find that made in the me available Indian data sources. The seven discuss major ey he Tamily household and head drawn from India, the Philippines, and Vietnam. The last esnay sums up the de bate and highlights the global nature of the problem.