The Care Crisis
What Caused It and How Can We End It?
-
- $9.99
-
- $9.99
Publisher Description
An examination of the global economic crisis from the perspective of care
Valuing care and care work does not simply mean attributing care work more monetary value. To really achieve change, we must go further.
In this groundbreaking book, Emma Dowling charts the multi-faceted nature of care in the modern world, from the mantras of self-care and what they tell us about our anxieties, to the state of the social care system. She examines the relations of power that play profitability and care off in against one another in a myriad of ways, exposing the devastating impact of financialisation and austerity.
As the world becomes seemingly more uncaring, the calls for people to be more compassionate and empathetic towards one another—in short, to care more—become ever-more vocal. The Care Crisis challenges the idea that people ever stopped caring, but also that the deep and multi-faceted crises of our time will be solved by a simply (re)instilling the virtues of empathy. There is no easy fix.
The Care Crisis enquires into the ways in which the continued off-loading of the cost of care onto the shoulders of underpaid and unpaid realms of society, untangling how this off-loading combines with commodification, marketisation and financialisation to produce the mess we are living in. The Care Crisis charts the current experiments in short-term fixes to the care crisis that are taking place within Britain, with austerity as the backdrop. It maps the economy of abandonment, raising the question: to whom care is afforded? And what would it mean to seriously value care?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
University of Vienna sociology professor Dowling debuts with a cogent exploration of how austerity measures and the privatization of social welfare and health services in the U.K. have resulted in a lack of suitable options for those in need. She notes that women are more likely than men to lose income as a result of caring for children; that people of color are disproportionately harmed by government cuts to social care spending; and that migrants make up a significant portion of care workers and are often paid below minimum wage. Since the 1990s, Dowling explains, local authorities have been encouraged to contract care services to private providers with the goal of offering more personalized care. Corporate takeovers, however, have resulted in a greater focus on shareholder profits over effective treatments. Her solutions include reducing privatization, "publicly funding new and innovative models for care," and improving working conditions for health-care employees. Blending sociological research and in-depth interviews, Dowling touches on many issues faced by patients and care providers in the U.K. and the U.S., and offers a lucid and alarming picture of how political decisions have created roadbocks to better care. Readers on both sides of the Atlantic will appreciate this passionate and persuasive call for reform.
