By Roderick Galam, Oxford Brookes University, MSH Visiting professor

To secure a job as a seafarer in the global maritime industry, thousands of young Filipino men who have finished three or four years of maritime education first work for free for manning agencies that supply seafarers to ship operators around the world in exchange for the promise of boarding a ship. Based on interviews, this paper examines how this period of unpaid work, utility cadetship— (servitude) and deployed as a strategy of attaining education-to-work transition became a means to strengthen the intergenerational contract between young men and their parents. The paper discusses two major ways by which this period of servitude nurtured a sense of family obligation: 1) how it was transformed into a strategy to improve the family’s prospects; and 2) how it demonstrated for the young men parental support and sacrifice and made them appreciate their vital importance to their family’s welfare. Utility cadetship intertwined individual masculine social adulthood with the securing of improved family welfare. The paper situates its analysis against the backdrop of Asian countries putting intergenerational contract at the core of their development and modernization strategies, which institutionalize families as the primary provider of welfare and care (Croll 2010).

On the occasion of the Midis de la MSH organized every Wednesday, a new seminar is offered each week by a researcher presenting his or her work.

This Wednesday, May 8 : "Chronicle of a debt fulfilled and ties that bind: Intergenerational contract in Filipino families and its incorporation into Filipino youths’ adult identity" by Roderick Galam, Oxford Brookes University, MSH visiting professor (presentation in English). All welcome!

Don't forget to bring your lunch !

Wednesday 8th May 2024 from 12.15 PM until 2.00 PM

Salle de réception
Bâtiment DE1 - Niveau 3 - Salle R.3.105
Avenue Antoine Depage 1
1000 Bruxelles

Free entrance