home industry
Enable an agent to recognise work conducted from a residence or combined workplace-residence, assess its operating conditions, and identify feasible actions within work, household and premises constraints.
Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled
6 bundles · 11 layers · 17 findings · 27 questions
Household production boundary Establishes what constitutes the production unit and why it qualifies as home industry.
Activity and exchange
Identifies goods production and the intended destination of its output.
Goods for exchange
Record the transformation or processing performed and distinguish exchanged output from household consumption.
- What goods are made or processed, and which production stages occur at home? definition
- Which outputs are intended for sale, barter, commissioned delivery or household use? boundary
Household and enterprise
Separates household organisation, production location and enterprise identity.
Production unit identity
Record the household's organising role without assuming that it constitutes a separate legal person.
- Who organises production, and how is that person or group connected to the resident household? definition
- What evidence links this production unit to any registered business, cooperative or commissioning enterprise? provenance
Domestic workspace and process Connects the production workflow to space, equipment and resources shared with domestic life.
Workspace sharing
Records where production occurs and when those spaces serve domestic purposes.
Domestic production interface
Identify shared rooms, storage areas and utilities whose competing uses constrain work.
- Which production and storage spaces are also used for cooking, sleeping, care or other household activities? boundary
- How many hours per period is each required space actually available for production? measurement
Workflow and capacity
Maps production stages and the limits imposed by household-scale resources.
Household production bottleneck
Record the limiting production stage, including any dependence on processing outside the home.
- Which stage limits deliverable output under the current household schedule, equipment and utility supply? measurement
- Which stages must be performed elsewhere, and what access or delivery arrangements make them available? boundary
Household labour and control Makes work contributions, compensation and authority within the household production arrangement explicit.
Work participation
Records who performs production work and how it intersects with household responsibilities.
Visible and unpaid work
Account for paid and unpaid contributions, including preparation, purchasing, packaging and recordkeeping.
- Who performs each task, for how many hours, and under what payment or household-sharing arrangement? measurement
- How do care duties, schooling and other work constrain each participant's available production time? boundary
Production decision rights
Identifies control over orders, methods, productive assets and proceeds.
Authority over household resources
Distinguish the person doing the work from those entitled to commit resources or receive earnings.
- Who may accept an order, change a production method or commit shared household space and equipment? action
- Who receives production income, and what agreement governs compensation and its distribution? provenance
Orders and household returns Models how household production reaches buyers and produces an economic return.
Buyer and commissioning arrangements
Distinguishes direct selling from production controlled through intermediaries or commissioning firms.
Order control and acceptance
Record who supplies inputs, specifies the output, accepts delivery and bears the cost of rejection.
- Who owns the inputs and output, sets specifications and determines whether delivered work is accepted? boundary
- What recorded terms govern price, rejection, rework, cancellation and payment timing? provenance
Household production economics
Assesses returns while exposing unpaid work and shared domestic costs.
Return after production demands
Separate cash surplus from estimates that account for household labour, space and equipment use.
- What remains from receipts after materials, energy, transport, fees, paid labour and rework over a stated period? measurement
- How does the estimated return change when unpaid labour and shared household resources are explicitly valued? measurement
Domestic operating conditions Assesses whether a specific production process can operate within its domestic setting and continue through change.
Resident exposure and permissions
Connects process-specific hazards and operating requirements to the actual dwelling and jurisdiction.
Conditions for home production
Record evidence about domestic exposure pathways and applicable requirements without inferring compliance from business registration.
- Which process materials, emissions, heat sources, machines or stored goods can expose residents or neighbours, and what separation measures exist? boundary
- Which current authoritative records establish the premises, product and operating requirements applicable to this activity? provenance
Continuity and relocation
Tracks dependence on household circumstances and thresholds for changing the production setting.
Household-dependent continuity
Identify how loss of domestic space, key labour or household consent affects operation and classification.
- Which changes in residence, household labour or access to equipment would interrupt production? boundary
- What observed capacity or operating constraint would trigger reduced output, shared external facilities or relocation to a separate workshop? action
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Check these first
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these check these first hold for the sense of home industry this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Kinds and varieties
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of home industry this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Standards and regulation
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of home industry this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of home industry this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of home industry this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Regional variation
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of home industry this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of home industry this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Classifiers Filled
- Family
- Thing Registry
- Category
- Society, people and institutions
- Entry kind
- thing
- Plane
- SOC
- Domain
- SOC.ORG
- Other names and narrower kinds
- handicraft industry
What it is Filled
Home industry is work conducted from a residential building or a combined workplace-residence, including goods production, home-based services and remote office work.
In scope
- The home-based work activity and its relationship to an employer, client or registered enterprise.
- Goods production, services and remote office work conducted from residential premises.
- Household, hired and subcontracted labour and their decision rights.
- Materials, equipment, capacity and interference with household activities.
- Employment, market access, commissioning arrangements and income from the work.
- Operating permissions, work hazards and continuity conditions.
Out of scope
- Ordinary household activities unrelated to employment, self-employment or commissioned work.
- Work conducted entirely away from residential or combined workplace-residence premises.
- The dwelling's complete architectural and property model.
- A national industry's domestic-versus-foreign classification.
- The full model of each manufactured product or material.
- Factories or workshops that are neither residential premises nor part of a combined workplace-residence.
Why it exists Filled
Enable an agent to recognise work conducted from a residence or combined workplace-residence, assess its operating conditions, and identify feasible actions within work, household and premises constraints.
Distinguishing features Filled
- Work is conducted from a residential building or combined workplace-residence, rather than the premises serving only as a business address.
- The work may involve goods production, services or remote office duties.
- Household ownership, household labour and a particular enterprise size are not required.
- The worker may be self-employed, employed by an external organisation or commissioned by a client.
- Work and residential uses share premises, although their spaces and resources may be separate.
What robots and AI may and may not do Filled
Must not
- Help hide child labour or unpaid work by family members.
- Advise selling home-made food or cosmetics without meeting safety rules.
- Publish home producers' addresses without consent.
- Help a buyer cut piece rates below lawful pay.
Only with a human decision
- Reporting suspected exploitation in a household.
- Deciding on licensing or closure of a home business.
May
- Describe home industries and their place in local economies from sourced material.
- Point home producers to rules on licensing, safety and labour rights.
- Help a home producer track orders and stock with their consent.
Moral aspects Filled
- Home industry supports families but can hide exploitation, especially of women and children.
- Homeworkers often lack the protections of factory workers.
Who is affected
- Homeworkers
- Children in the household
- Buyers of the goods
Owners Filled
Steward
The household that runs it; local authorities license and inspect it.
Master systems
- Local business registers
Links to other meta-models Filled
parent
- Q4830453 - registry parent class
What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled
Identity and identifiers required Filled
- Vercy registry: vr.tr.home-industry
- Wikidata: Q6953855 (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6953855)
Direct properties not applicable Not applicable
- Production arrangement: own-account production; commissioned production; subcontracted processing; mixed; unresolved
- Relationship to enterprise identity: household production unit linked to identified proprietor, cooperative, company or commissioning enterprise; unresolved
- Domestic premises dependence: shared living space; dedicated room; attached workshop; domestic outbuilding; multiple arrangements
- Labour contribution: person-hours per reporting period, separated by household and non-household workers
- Production capacity: specified product units per period under stated labour, space and equipment assumptions
- Control of productive assets: identified owner and authorised user of workspace, equipment, materials and finished goods
- Household cash return: currency per period after explicitly identified cash costs
- Buyer concentration: percentage of sales revenue attributable to the largest buyer over a stated period
- Operating state: preparing; active; seasonal pause; temporarily suspended; relocating; ceased; unknown
Plane SOC: no invented physical properties.
Recognition optional Filled
- Work equipment, materials or an office workspace may occupy part of a residence or combined workplace-residence.
- Work-related stock, service facilities or office equipment may suggest home-based work but do not establish it on their own.
- Domestic facilities coexist with workspace, although observation alone cannot confirm the activity's employment or commercial status.
Capabilities and actions required Filled
- Classify a candidate activity by its goods production, household organisation and use of domestic premises.
- Map who can accept orders, commit household resources and change production methods.
- Estimate feasible output against household schedules, workspace and equipment constraints.
- Assess an order's expected household return, payment exposure and production demands.
- Identify production activities requiring separation from domestic use or verification of local requirements.
- Compare remaining household-based, sharing external facilities or moving production to a separate workshop.
Hazards and failure modes required Filled
- Hidden child labour and long unpaid hours.
- Fire and chemical risks from production in living spaces.
- Unsafe food or goods sold without inspection.
Standards and interfaces required Filled
- Home Work Convention, 1996 (No. 177), International Labour Organization.
- Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138), International Labour Organization.
Context of use required Filled
- Home industry occurs where household space supports small-scale production of goods for sale.
- It is encountered in activities such as textile work, craft production and food processing, where residential and productive uses share space or resources.
- The concept is used to assess livelihoods, workspace needs and the relationship between production and household life.
Sources Filled
- Wikidata item Q6953855: home industry - identity and sense of the item
- Wikipedia: Cottage industry - general description of the item
Open questions
- Does the registry intend household-based goods production, a historically specific cottage-industry arrangement, or domestic national industry?
- Does an existing Vercy world model already cover this concept, requiring a registry link instead of a separate publication?
- What boundary should apply when production occupies a detached workshop on residential land or increasingly relies on non-household workers?
- Which distinctions between independent household producers and dependent industrial homeworkers must this registry entry preserve?
- Which authoritative sources and jurisdiction-specific definitions should establish the researched scope, labour categories and operating requirements?
Machine files
Provenance
thing registry research (pass 2) · unreviewed
Built from: models/things/publications/thing-q6953855/spec.json