??Manicuring Intimacy: Feminised labour, (self-)care, and racialised encounters in nail salons?
Description of the granted funding
This project examines an understudied field of nail salons in Europe, an employment sector that is run by migrant women. The global nail salon industry has grown rapidly in recent years, fuelled by increasing consumer demand for self-care and the expansion of the service sector. This market is mainly composed of small businesses owned and staffed by migrant women, primarily from Eastern Europe (e.g. Ukraine, Belarus, Russia) and Southeast Asia (e.g. Thailand and Vietnam). The project combines participant observations and interviews with workers and customers of nail salons in Helsinki and Warsaw, with video, text, and still images to analyse intimate relations that are being made and unmade among women through touch, beauty and (self-)care. The project's findings will inform policy and civil society responses to the inequalities faced by migrant women and the conditions of work in one of the poorly regulated sectors of labour.
Show moreStarting year
2025
End year
2029
Granted funding
Funder
Research Council of Finland
Funding instrument
Academy research fellows
Decision maker
Scientific Council for Social Sciences and Humanities
17.06.2025
17.06.2025
Other information
Funding decision number
371004
Fields of science
Other social sciences
Research fields
Nais- ja sukupuolentutkimus