Reconceptualising social care: the (new) contestation of social care and its gendered implications (original) (raw)

Care work – international perspectives and reflections

Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie

Care is an issue with strong roots in Feminist and Gender Studies, and since the beginning of the 21 st century different strands of Sociology are 'discovering' it as one of the most pressing issues of our time. The meteoric rise of care and care work on the societal as well as sociological agenda is strongly related to the discussion of the crisis of social reproduction or the crisis of care. A closer look at this phenomenon and the care debate in general directs our attention at four aspects. First, the discourse about the crisis of social reproduction and the crisis of care in Western Europe, initiated by debates headed by activists and scholars in Spain (Precarias a la Deriva 2004) and Italy (Sconvegno 2007) has highlighted the lack of care provision by the state and the increasing precariousness of care work as feminized and racialized labor (Gutiérrez Rodríguez 2014). After the global financial crisis in 2007/8, Western European governments have reacted to it by implementing austerity measures, causing in particular cuts in the areas of elderly, child and health care (Gavanas and Williams 2008). Subsequently, we are observing how austerity schemes lead to a return of precariousness and precarity and a decline of the welfare state, putting care provision at risk. In this context, research on the crisis of social reproduction and care engages with the analyses and critic of capitalism (Völker and Amacker 2015). Second, the contemporary capitalist organization of care provision

Introduction: Everyday Struggles and Contestations Around Care

Care and the City, 2021

Why Should We Care About Care, and What Do Struggles and Contestation Have to Do with It? Care creates social bonds and glues societies together; we care and are cared for, and this is what sustains societies. No matter how vital to human development and relations, care is simultaneously something capitalist societies tend to undervalue yet concomitantly is often idealized or romanticized to legitimize a neoliberal form of governmentality. Struggles to

Introduction: Towards a global sociology of care and care work

Current Sociology, 2018

Although care and care work have always formed a theme of fundamental social significance, neither has had much social recognition nor sociological attention commensurate with this importance. In this Current Sociology monograph we want to move the discussion forward towards a global sociology of care and care work. The contributions focus on both theoretical and empirical studies about care relations and their global interrelations. To shed light on the dynamics that characterise the social organisation of care and care work, the monograph has been structured around three significant tendencies in the international sociology of care: (a) the marketisation and the de-commodification of care and care work; (b) the transnationalisation of labour and policies; and (c) new forms of governance and social statehood. The articles in this monograph present state of the art research reflecting on the care-situation, -arrangements and -regimes all over the globe.

Framing Care: Gender, Labour and Governmentalities

Care is performed at the intersections of various social differentiations in which its gendering appears tenacious. This article delineates four thematic clusters that variously focus on the work, relations, practices and politics of care, and elaborates on some organising concepts, studies and arguments. These framings overlap and question each other: the sexual division of labour, mothering, the economic and social value of women's domestic work and the work/care regime; gendered critiques of welfare regimes and a care regime; the care economy, a sharpening care crisis and care deficit with neo-liberal policies and demands for a work-life balance; and the rationalities, biopolitics and governmentalities of the social organisation and morality of care. Discussions diverge and converge in debates on the making of gender relations in work and political economy. Taking the labour of care seriously in the struggle against women's subordination and gender inequalities appears inescapable.

Towards a transnational analysis of the political economy of care

Feminist Ethics and Social Policy. Towards a New …, 2011

The resurgence of the employment of domestic and care workers in private homes in many industrialised countries over the last two decades has been shaped by important social changes, most notable among this are the increased responsibilities and rights of women across the globe to be both earners and carers. This reflects graduated shifts from the 'male breadwinner' to 'adult worker' model taking place in many industrialised societies and unemployment and poverty in developing countries. As many of those who carry out this work are migrant women, this reveals the movement of women seeking opportunities created by the changing patterns of post-colonial migration to financially support their families. Such migrations are also structured by the policies developed by states in richer countries.. The nature of care regimes in host countries clearly influence take up: where care provision is commodified and where care cultures favour home-based/ surrogate care, then reliance on the low paid end of the private market is more common (Ungerson and Yeandle, 2007; Williams and Gavanas, 2008). At the same time, migration rules construct the legal, social and civil rights of migrants in different ways, in tandem with employment policies that may serve to deregulate the economy and to increase the casualisation of labour. Superimposed on this universe of change is the ongoing reconstitution of social relations of gender, care and domestic service, of hierarchies of ethnicity and nationality, and of differentiated meanings of, and rights to, citizenship. This paper draws on earlier research into migration and home-based care in Europe as a basis for developing a transnational analysis of the political

Rethinking Care: a critical analysis of family policies and the negotiation of dependency

maternalhealthandwellbeing.com

Debates concerning the organisation of care are now firmly on the public agenda, most obviously through ongoing controversy over the tensions between the demands of the labour market and those of the household. Recent social and political changes have important implications for the family's, especially women's, capacity and preparedness to provide the care that is essential to human wellbeing and social life. In what is variously referred to as the ‗new economy' or the ‗new capitalism', and accompanying ‗postwelfare' state, a major shift in social policy has been premised on the superiority of the social relations characteristic of the market. Yet as leading feminist theorists have pointed out for years (Waring 1988, Kitttay 1999, Folbre 2004, Fineman 2004, both economy and state are not only enmeshed with each other but each is highly dependent on the unpaid household and caring labour largely undertaken by women in families and communities.

Care as a social construct: the case of home care workers in contemporary Belgium

Over the last several years, francophone researchers have been focussing their attention on the dynamics of proximity services2. In terms of their funding, and in the way they mobilise human resources and relate to the institutional environment, the trend in these services is toward the mobilisation of complex, interrelated principles of reciprocity, household administration, market and redistribution. Moreover, these services meet highly varied and often emerging social demands (Laville, Nyssens 2000). In this paper, we examine the socialisation “in the making” of the care that home- care services provide to elderly dependents. Our hypothesis is that this socialisation is, in many aspects, incomplete. Indeed, since this sector is undergoing profound change, it is interesting to analyze the emerging processes that define the way the services are being socialised. To this end, we have examined one specific service – that provided by “home care workers”3. The mission of these workers is to assure a presence on a (relatively) long period for the dependant person4. These services are intended mainly for elderly persons who wish to remain at home in spite of loss of autonomy in performing some daily activities. In our view, two aspects of these services stand out. The first is that they have been set up recently and are meeting emerging needs. The second is that they bring together several professional and non-professional individuals – usually female - to provide services to the care-receiver. The service provided by the “home care worker” thus offers a highly relevant vantage point from which to observe socialisation mechanisms “in the making”. To start, we will develop our analytical framework. The “home care service” mobilises numerous market, public and voluntary resources and requires analysis based on a broad approach to socioeconomic organisation facilitating a framework inspired, in particular, by the views of Polanyi. Feminist theories on the socialisation of care allow us to update the specificity of the social relationships at issue in these services, in which women are the principal actors. This will allow us, in a second part, to analyse “home care services” as a social construction, at the intersection of different types of socioeconomic logic made known by (i) their financial resources and (ii) the human resources that they place at the disposal of their care-receivers. Thirdly, we will see how this new service may be considered as a social innovation, lending itself to more equality between men and women, certain aspects of which nonetheless still need to be perfected. Analysis of the social innovation dynamic reveals additional unresolved tensions that prompt us to question the policies set up by governments. Consequently, the last section will raise questions about responsibility for care-giving in Welfare States.

Care: actors, relationships, contexts

Care' (or 'caring') is one of the contested concepts in the study of gender and social politics. As a concept and activity, care covers a number of different relations, actors, and institutional settings, and crosses conventional boundaries. It can pertain to family analysis, but also to labour market and welfare state analysis, to concepts and practices of work and citizenship, to issues of social inclusion and exclusion, and so forth.