Confronting capital’s care fix: care through the lens of democracy

• Date: 21 May 2018
• Pages: 332-346
• Published date: 21 May 2018
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-02-2017-0032
• Author: Emma Dowling
• Subject Matter: HR & organizational behaviour,Employment law,Diversity, equality, inclusion

Confronting capital’scarefix:care

through the lens of democracy

Emma Dowling

Department of Sociology, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Jena, Germany

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to propose to expand the politicaleconomic understanding of a “fix”,

that is, capital’s ability to overcome crises of profitability through a displacement of its crisis tendencies,

to include an analytical attention to the gendered, sexualised and racialised unwaged and underpaid

(caring) labour that reproduces labour power within a capitalist economy.

Design/methodology/approach –A“care fix”, the author argues, involves attempts to manage a crisis of

care in ways that do not resolve but merely displace the crisis, perpetuating the systemic imperative of capital

to off-load the cost of social reproduction and care, thereby constituting a crucial dynamic of capitalist

development and restructuring and resulting in the reorganisation of gendered and racialised class relations

and historically contingent regimes of reproduction.

Findings –The maceration of the Fordist regime of reproduction under neoliberalism has given way to a

new post-Fordist arrangement that, having exhausted its care fix, is now once again in crisis. A new care fix is

currently under way, while at the same time it is being contested and redirected by the contemporary

struggles over social reproduction, care and democracy.

Research limitations/implications –Consequently, the author discusses the emergence of the notion of

“caring capitalism”and contrasts this with proposals for democratising care, in turn investigating these

developments in the context of an ongoing crisis of political representation in Europe and offering a notion of

“care municipalism”as a possible way forward.

Practical implications –The practicalimplications concern the possibilityof democratising the caresector.

Social implications –The social implications pertain to the questions of how social, political and economic

institutions shift when care is placed on their agenda.

Originality/value –The value of this paper is to make a theoretical contributionto the analysis of changing

configurations of care, social reproduction and society in relation to questions of democracy.

Keywords Gender, History, Labour market, Feminism

Paper type Conceptual paper

Open the papers on any day in Britain to articles about the crisis in social and health care:

the rise in ageing populations and the increase in dementia without the necessary care

facilities or resources to deal with it; reduced mental health services; the abandonment of

refugees; the lack of nursery schools; cuts to disability care budgets; overworked doctors

and nurses; and stressed children. At the same time, the well-being industry is booming.

Proliferating too is the advice literature on self-care that sits alongside a concomitant

insurance industry, start-ups for new care technologies and personalised services from care

budget planners to cuddle therapists. The latter are part of a new kind of capitalism whose

advocates claim is more ethical. Carr ying the qualifying nomers of “conscious ”,

“compassionate”,“philanthropic”or “caring”, it seeks to harmonise profit-motives with

ethical intentions. Proponents argue that an entrepreneurial hand can now find its ethical

glove in “doing well by doing good”and producing “social value”(Bishop and Green, 2011).

At the same time, according to such proponents, a responsibilised capitalism can offer

remedies for the ongoing care crisis and respond to the criticisms levelled at a capitalist

economy that prioritises profit over all else[1]. In this paper, I discuss the link between a care

crisis and this new political economy of care that is emerging. Moreover, I make the link to

the question of where we place the growing crisis of political representation and struggles

for democracy –exemplified both by the post-2008 anti-austerity protests as well as

the more recent surge in right-wing populism –within these new configurations and the

contested terrains upon which they are occurring.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 37 No. 4, 2018

pp. 332-346

© Emerald PublishingLimited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-02-2017-0032

Received 10 February 2017

Revised 1 July 2017

Accepted 30 July 2017

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/2040-7149.htm

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