Hi,
My name is Katy Wheeler and I am a researcher from the University of Essex. We are looking for 10 households in the Lewisham area to participate in a research study beginning in April.

The aim of the research is to discover whether people are now required to do more work than previously in order to buy and use goods and services. It is likely that over your lifetime, you have experienced changes in how you buy and dispose of consumer goods. For example, booking holidays online yourself or assembling flat-pack furniture reveal how consumers are now expected to do what used to be done as paid employment by travel agents or furniture makers. Our project seeks to explore the changing nature of what we are calling ‘consumption work’

We are interested in your experience of such shifts, especially in three particular areas of activity and how these are undertaken in your household. The three are:
1. installing computer equipment and broadband access;
2. food preparation;
3. recycling of domestic rubbish

Your participation would involve two stages; first, we would like to meet for a face-to-face interview at the time of your choosing. For the second stage, we will provide you with a diary sheet (and in some cases a disposable camera) and will ask you to keep a record of your ‘consumption work’ during the course of a normal week. Your participation is voluntary and you can withdraw at any time, without giving a reason.

If you are interested to take part, please contact me at kmwhee@essex.ac.uk

Thanks