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A review by belahgen
The Care Crisis: What Caused It and How Can We End It? by Emma Dowling
4.0
The idea of “crisis of care” started coming up a lot around me when the covid-19 pandemic first broke out last year. Although this topic has been discussed by feminists for a while, it became a latent concern of our times, as our societies keep collapsing due to the (intentional) devaluating of care work. This book then appealed to me because Dowling proposes we bring “care” to the centre of our debates about the crises we are experiencing.
Overall, her aim is to unpack the causes and effects of the multiple “crises of care”, narrowing her analysis to context of the UK. Dowling explains how financialised capitalism operates to cut “expenses” on the provision of care so that it can be regulated by the markets. Her main point is to demonstrate that the “austerity” arguments cannot be sustained. While generating profit for investors, the privatization of care work has aggravated the crisis for those who really matter: the ones in need of care and the ones providing care.
The book is thus successful in offering an overview of “what caused” (or rather, exacerbated) the current care crisis (in the UK context),but offers little in terms of “how to end it”. Dowling unravels the many layers of how care work is undervalued, bringing in discussions on gender, race, childcare, elderly care, (dis)abilities, migration, and the role of neoliberalism in aggravating social and economic vulnerabilities. However, the book’s subtitle is misleading when it suggests a tentative plan to tackle the issues. Of course: there really is no simple and immediate solution to the care crisis - but that seems to be her main conclusion in the end.
That said, one thing I truly appreciated was Dowling’s approach from the material experiences of care. Because she relied on interviews and her own observations whilst conducting fieldwork, her understanding of “care” comes from the thoughts and feelings of those that live through this crisis in the frontline. As she introduces each chapter recounting the routines and experiences of her participants, she places their struggles as the most relevant facet of this global phenomenon.
Her investigation of “care”, then, is expansive. Care is not only about the material and physical activities that provide for human beings to live and survive, but also about the emotional circumstances that are part of human life. We all, indeed, care for one another. The problem Dowling brings attention to is how the idea of “care” keeps being co-opted by a neoliberal mentality.
Overall, her aim is to unpack the causes and effects of the multiple “crises of care”, narrowing her analysis to context of the UK. Dowling explains how financialised capitalism operates to cut “expenses” on the provision of care so that it can be regulated by the markets. Her main point is to demonstrate that the “austerity” arguments cannot be sustained. While generating profit for investors, the privatization of care work has aggravated the crisis for those who really matter: the ones in need of care and the ones providing care.
The book is thus successful in offering an overview of “what caused” (or rather, exacerbated) the current care crisis (in the UK context),but offers little in terms of “how to end it”. Dowling unravels the many layers of how care work is undervalued, bringing in discussions on gender, race, childcare, elderly care, (dis)abilities, migration, and the role of neoliberalism in aggravating social and economic vulnerabilities. However, the book’s subtitle is misleading when it suggests a tentative plan to tackle the issues. Of course: there really is no simple and immediate solution to the care crisis - but that seems to be her main conclusion in the end.
That said, one thing I truly appreciated was Dowling’s approach from the material experiences of care. Because she relied on interviews and her own observations whilst conducting fieldwork, her understanding of “care” comes from the thoughts and feelings of those that live through this crisis in the frontline. As she introduces each chapter recounting the routines and experiences of her participants, she places their struggles as the most relevant facet of this global phenomenon.
Her investigation of “care”, then, is expansive. Care is not only about the material and physical activities that provide for human beings to live and survive, but also about the emotional circumstances that are part of human life. We all, indeed, care for one another. The problem Dowling brings attention to is how the idea of “care” keeps being co-opted by a neoliberal mentality.