Conceptualizing care inequalities and modalities ofresistance

Abstract

This paper reflects on new conceptualizations of care work in the expansive care economy. New conceptualizations of care demarcate heterogeneity and hierarchies of care labor, identifying multiple and complex inequalities among home care workers and between care workers across the care economy. Caring practices are theorized not only as work but also as resistance. In different ways, this research outlines relational understandings of care and caring and the array of activities and social relationships involved in maintaining people, both on a daily basis and intergenerationally. Conceptualizing and mapping the care economy is consequential for determining gaps in protections, addressing conditions of employment and inequalities, revaluing care, and realizing potentials for organizing and forging political alliances.