Caring amidst Uncertainty

In this Open Session, presenters will engage with how risk and uncertainty shape paid and unpaid caregiving. Caregiving is inherently unpredictable, demanding constant and complex risk mitigation. Paid and unpaid caregivers, including parents, must respond to care recipients’ changing needs amidst the persistent turbulence that is reshaping the world we live in. Responsibility to provide care, including risk mitigation, is often assigned to individuals via appeals to altruism, moral imperatives, and cultural values. However, caregiving responsibilities are unevenly distributed. Women, sex and gender minorities, racialized minorities, Indigenous Peoples, disabled individuals, and many other groups are disproportionately responsible for paid and unpaid care work, including mitigating risks to care recipients, if not also the wider community. Compared to men and socially privileged groups, these groups take on more emotionally intensive, invisible, and unpredictable aspects of caregiving work. Presenters in this session will explore how paid and unpaid caregivers manage the uncertainties of care recipients’ needs, absorb systemic risks to protect others, and continue caring in the contexts of various crises (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change).