Female Paid Domestic Care Work: A Node of Social Reproduction

Project Information

CareWork

Grant agreement ID: 101029279

DOI

10.3030/101029279

Project closed

EC signature date 24 February 2021

Start date 4 October 2021

End date 4 June 2024

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 174 167,04

EU contribution

€ 174 167,04

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITAET GRAZ
Austria

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CareWork (Female Paid Domestic Care Work: A Node of Social Reproduction)

Reporting period: 2021-10-04 to 2023-10-03

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

CareWork is an anthropological study of informal, paid domestic care work for children and older persons performed by women in and from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
The organisation of care has is central to policy debates in many countries. In BiH it has so far attracted little public discussion, and still less policy. Yet, paid care – overwhelmingly informally, provided almost exclusively by women – is crucial to many households. Motivated by the worldwide under-recognition of this essential activity as real labour and by global changes in its organisation, this ethnographic study builds on (socialist) feminist scholarship that places care at the centre of political economy.
Three specificities stand out. Firstly, instead of employing a micro-focus on static kinship relations, this study investigates care work as a processual, relational, transformative social activity that shapes and is shaped by broader processes, thus providing a prism to understand issues of social reproduction and transformations. Secondly, it approaches social reproduction in a transnational framework (specifically: Europeanisation). Grounded in an investigation of informal paid care work in Sarajevo (BiH), it analyses care workers' social reproduction strategies, including their considerations and practices of (often periodical) labour migration. Austria (also: Germany and Italy) thus features as an auxiliary site for research on informal paid care work by women from BiH. Thirdly, the study analyses how different stakeholders conceive of 'good' care, with a focus on contradictions and tensions. Its innovative methodology revolves around 'care clusters' that emerge from the interactions of differentially positioned care givers, care receivers, and family members of both.
Three central research questions are: a) How is informal paid care work organised in practice?; b) How does it shape up in relation to broader social processes (e.g. reconfigurations of labour and social security, of ethnonational relations, of migration) in light of processes of Europeanisation?; c) Which effects (including transformations) does this work produce for the various stakeholders?

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

CareWork revolved around an ethnographic investigation with a targeted, multi-facetted methodology. Grounded in a literature review, and finetuned for the specific settings, this comprised a range of research techniques. I conducted 43 in-depth interviews, of which 30 in Sarajevo, where, in line with the conception of 'care clusters', I interviewed care givers, care receivers, and their family members. Regarding auxiliary research sites, I conducted 13 in-depth interviews with women from BiH who worked as carers in Austria, Germany and Italy. I conducted (non)participant observation on care work in 4 households. As a proxy-method for such direct ethnographic insight I also relied on pre-structured participant diaries from 7 care givers (on activities, experiences and interpretations) and time budget sheets from 6 care givers (listing daily activities). I followed care workers' social media communication and conducted (non)participant observation on a 4-week training course for carers. I attended events related to care work in Sarajevo and in Austria, and conducted 6 expert interviews. To map care related policies and the socio-political context I relied on media reports, strategic documents and civil society activities.
This ethnographic research delivered detailed insight into practices, their embeddedness in social relations and actors' interpretations.
Data analysis and writing started during fieldwork, allowing finetuning of methodology and interviews. I coded interviews and notes thematically and, in dialogue with literature, analysed findings. So far, I have delivered presentations at 9 academic events across Europe and at 2 events aimed at researchers and civil society in Sarajevo. This included organising and leading a dedicated programme on a Film Festival in Sarajevo (5 films with discussions, public lecture, panel discussion) and co-organising and co-convening a two-semester film series in Graz (6 films with discussions). At the request of UNWOMEN BiH, I summarised my findings in a draft policy brief, for the purpose of their collaboration with the relevant ministry. That document I also discussed with civil society actors. The project's Facebook page provides information to researchers, civil society, research participants and policy makers. I made 4 contributions to BiH media.
This dissemination strategy benefited from intensive networking with researchers, activists and artists in Austria, Southeast Europe and beyond, for which my host institution served as a vibrant, resourceful platform. My research also fed into a co-designed and co-taught MA course on SE European Political Economy there.
I have written two scholarly articles on the basis of my research. One is under review with a major peer-reviewed anthropology journal; the other is nearly ready for submission.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

My analysis so far has identified three prominent patterns in the data that allow substantial contributions to our understanding of care work and social reproduction.
First, care workers in and from BiH engage in 'patchworking for social reproduction'. They engage in multiple forms of labour and seek to access other resources too – all this requires strategizing with relationships. Most interlocutors were women between 50 and 70, who moved to Sarajevo during or after the 1992-1995 war. That war, economic collapse and/or displacement interrupted their formal employment trajectories. Their current care work is informal and from their marginal position in financial capitalism they cannot access bank loans. So, these women combine various jobs to ensure housing and subsistence. Displaying extreme levels of self-responsibility, they combine several care jobs with cleaning and agriculture (for consumption and for sale). In all this they mobilise connections for support and, frequently, to find temporary informal care jobs in Western Europe.
The latter concerns the second pattern: 'constant (re)assessment of options to work abroad'. Care work in Western Europe is considered, discussed – even when it is not a realistic option. Here, the 'West', or 'Europe', do not feature as a societal aspiration for political or 'civilisational' Europeanisation, but, pragmatically, as an extension of the market. It provides something that is lacking at home.
A third pattern revolves around visions of 'good' care within care clusters. Particularly women working abroad associate this with 'a need for constant adjustment'. This reflects exploitative, precarious labour conditions. Feminist scholarship on (transnational) care workers rightly criticises those and calls for policy changes. Yet my research found that even in such conditions, care workers strategize to build less asymmetrical relations. This occurs in inter-personal encounters and feeds into diverse experiences and conceptualisations of Europe, conditioned by specific positions in employing households but also by comparisons with conditions in BiH, with previous working experiences, and with memories of life in socialist Yugoslavia and its European and cosmopolitan dimension.
These patterns have been central to my contributions to scholarly and policy discussions on care work and social reproduction, as they are to my (ongoing) dissemination activities.

Presenting at the Conference in Zadar, Croatia, April 2023

Participation in the European Researchers Night, Vienna, 30 September 2022

Providing an expert commentary abouth the film: Ruthless Times, Songs of Care, Graz, Jan 2023