“We Ask for More Than We Give Back”: Negotiating the Boundaries of Informal Childcare Arrangements

2021 ◽  
pp. 0192513X2098450
Author(s):  
Barbara Cosson ◽  
Kay Cook ◽  
Michelle Brady
Keyword(s):  
Informal Care ◽  
Workplace Flexibility ◽  
Relational Work ◽  
Caring Relationship ◽  
Care Relationships ◽  
Childcare Providers ◽  
Norm Of Reciprocity

There is an assumption that childcare services and workplace flexibility policies enable a seamless shift between childcare and work. Similarly, there is an assumption that informal care arrangements will be relatively seamless as the norm of reciprocity is assumed to bind families together through the bonds of love and affection. Monetary exchange for this work is seen to demean the caring relationship, but this does not mean “costs” are absent. Drawing on the work of Viviana Zelizer, this article examines how parents negotiate informal care arrangements, identifying the “payments” that differentiate family from friend care. The analysis focuses on parents working nonstandard and variable hours who were part of a broader project examining childcare flexibility, which also involved childcare providers and policymakers. This article identifies the relational work involved in the maintenance of informal care relationships and how they are negotiated when parents “ask for more than they give.”

scholarly journals The Treatment of Informal Care-Related Risks as Social Risks: An Analysis of the English Care Policy System

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 179-196
Author(s):  
FIONA MORGAN
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Informal Care ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Social Risk ◽  
Care Policy ◽  
Policy System ◽  
Social Risks ◽  
Statutory Protection ◽  
Care Relationships ◽  
Post War

AbstractThe social risk literature examines the extent to which states have provided social protection against the ‘old’ social risks of the post-war era and the ‘new’ social risks affecting post-industrial capitalist states. In this paper the contingency of the provision of informal care to people aged 65 and over is discussed. The paper deconstructs the concept of social risk to determine the characteristics and processes which contribute to states recognising specific contingencies as social risks which require social protection. This conceptualisation is applied to make the case that care-related risks associated with the informal care of older people should be recognised and treated as social risks by states. Data from a qualitative study of the English care policy system provide empirical evidence that informal care-related risks are recognised, but not treated, as social risks in England. The findings reveal informal carers, and the older people they care for, receive inadequate and inconsistent statutory protection against the poverty and welfare risks they face. Furthermore the design and operationalisation of the English care policy system generates risks for care relationships.

Older Carers, Interdependence and the Care of Mentally Handicapped Adults

1986 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon Grant
Keyword(s):  
Elderly People ◽  
Informal Care ◽  
Retirement Age ◽  
Mentally Handicapped ◽  
Demographic Trends ◽  
Formal Support ◽  
Handicapped People ◽  
Caring Relationship ◽  
Predominantly Female ◽  
To Receive

ABSTRACTElderly people are often seen as the recipients of informal care. In the study reported here, there are clear indications that carers of mentally handicapped people are predominantly female and often beyond retirement age. For some the task is burdensome, but for many it provides a reciprocity both of care and of companionship. Older carers are observed to receive more professional aid than younger carers. But as demographic trends make this caring relationship more common it will be necessary for formal support systems to become more integrated and comprehensive.

State support for children in informal care

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoyuan Shang ◽  
Karen R. Fisher
Keyword(s):  
Informal Care ◽  
Institutional Care ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Role Of Government ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Public Media ◽  
Care Relationships ◽  
Outcomes For Children

This chapter focuses on the implications of informal care relationships for children as they become young adults. These issues are important for the larger questions about good types of alternative care that benefit the well being and outcomes for children and young people in care and as they prepare to leave care. The chapter considers the advantages and disadvantages of informal care compared to institutional care, the role of government in supporting or prohibiting informal care, and the implications for social policy change to support these traditional arrangements. It also shows how, in recent years, China has more publicly recognized its policy responsibility to these children, as scandals even resulting in children's deaths have gained a profile in public media.

Gender, Cash and Informal Care: European Perspectives and Dilemmas

1995 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clare Ungerson
Keyword(s):  
Informal Care ◽  
Care Recipient ◽  
Care Giver ◽  
Feminist Literature ◽  
Caring Relationship ◽  
The Relationship

ABSTRACTRecent feminist literature on care has suggested that, conceptually, it is better to dissolve the boundaries between ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ care when analysing care. This article suggests that there are policy developments taking place, both in Britain and in some of the countries of Europe, which are dissolving the boundaries between formal and informal care, particularly as far as payment for care is concerned. It is argued that, in this case, far from benefit systems being a form of ‘decommodification’ they are actually a form of ‘commodification’ of the caring relationship. The article then explores these empirical developments, considers their gendered nature and genderedimpact, and their possible consequences for the relationship between care-giver and care-recipient.

scholarly journals Positive and negative evaluation of caregiving among three different types of informal care relationships

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 301-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marjolein I. Broese van Groenou ◽  
Alice de Boer ◽  
Jurjen Iedema
Keyword(s):  
Informal Care ◽  
Negative Evaluation ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Care Relationships

When Death Is Compelling

2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 352-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Schindler ◽  
Marc-André Reinhard
Keyword(s):  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Mortality Salience ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
Hypothetical Scenario ◽  
The Face ◽  
Scenario Study ◽  
Norm Of Reciprocity

Abstract. Research on terror management theory has found evidence that people under mortality salience strive to live up to activated social norms and values. Recently, research has shown that mortality salience also increases adherence to the norm of reciprocity. Based on this, in the current paper we investigated the idea that mortality salience influences persuasion strategies that are based on the norm of reciprocity. We therefore assume that mortality salience should enhance compliance for a request when using the door-in-the-face technique – a persuasion strategy grounded in the norm of reciprocity. In a hypothetical scenario (Study 1), and in a field experiment (Study 2), applying the door-in-the-face technique enhanced compliance in the mortality salience condition compared to a control group.

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