Care In a Turbulent World

More than 75.6 million persons, three-quarters of whom are women, undertake compensated domestic work for private households, the vast majority of whom lack protections from labor standards. Neo-liberal austerity measures reducing public funding have destabilized health care systems. So have budget cuts by undemocratic regimes that reduce human services in favor of the military and income redistribution upwards, deepening inequalities by class, race, and citizenship in the transformation and transnational extension of the gender division of labor. The rightwing turn in politics threatens the agenda for building a new caring economy.

The crisis in care impacts states that seek to provide for their inhabitants. But this poly-crisis, the interplay of multiple crises, has manifested in particular ways around the globe depending on the contours of various care economies and social protection systems. Socially disruptive situations, such as armed conflicts, factional wars, ethnic conflicts, or environmental disasters challenge the daily organization of caregiving activities, imposing a special burden on caregivers. Encompassing this multiplicity of challenges, the session opens the agenda of care studies to papers analyzing various situations of crisis and social turbulence.