Distances and proximities of care: Analysing emotio-spatial distances in informal caring

Sihto, Tiina

doi:10.1016/j.emospa.2018.10.002

Cited by 13 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…cleaning of expelled matter) and can only be achieved at close quarters (Twigg, 2000; Wiles, 2003). Besides facilitating the enactment of ‘heavy… hands‐on’ care (Jegermalm, 2004), Sihto (2018) highlights that bodily proximity is often intimately associated with ‘social and emotional closeness and distance’ which can prove to be either ‘liberating or constraining’ (63). Where bodily impairments or disabilities deter linguistic exchanges over distance, non‐verbal communicative cues/gestures and affective valences at close range become paramount for furnishing quality care (Butler and Parr, 1999).…”

Section: ‘Tuning’ As a Conceptual Lens For Understanding Care Interdementioning

confidence: 99%

Tuning care relations between migrant caregivers and the elderly in Singapore

Liew

Yeoh

Huang

et al. 2020

Asia Pacific Viewpoint

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The literature on care relations and eldercare has directed attention towards recognising the interdependence between ‘carer’ (familial caregiver or home support worker) and the ‘cared for’ (the older person). Such an approach gives attention to the contingencies and entanglements that shape the relationships among differently positioned members of care dyads. Drawing on in‐depth and ‘go‐along’ interviews, we examine how relations between migrant caregivers and their non‐migrant elderly charges in Singapore are spatially negotiated – formulated, sustained and reworked – on an everyday basis through Alfred Schütz's framework of intersubjective ‘tuning’. Owing to the unequal ways that migrant caregivers are positioned within Singapore society, moments of positive family‐like regard towards them are almost always preceded/superseded by forms of negativity and vice versa. The employer–employee care dyad is therefore best understood as a relational process that requires constant ‘tuning’, as the elderly employer needs care which no one else will provide, while the employee needs the job in order for the migration gamble to succeed. The paper concludes by drawing together the spatial and temporal insights that the conceptual approach of ‘tuning’ brings to analyses of care relations.

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Section: ‘Tuning’ As a Conceptual Lens For Understanding Care Interdementioning

confidence: 99%

Tuning care relations between migrant caregivers and the elderly in Singapore

Liew

Yeoh

Huang

et al. 2020

Asia Pacific Viewpoint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Having one’s care needs met depends on the availability of informal care from one’s family and friends, the accessibility and affordability of care services from the public or private sectors, and/or one’s own resources to access care services. A person has unmet care needs when help, support or care are needed but the care received, whether formal or informal, is inadequate ( Vlachantoni, 2019 ; Kröger 2010 ; Kröger et al, 2019 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The concept was coined by Teppo Kröger (2010) to refer to single mothers’ lack of childcare resources. Later the concept has been used in research on care of older people ( Kröger et al, 2019 ). Recently Hill (2021) has conceptualized care poverty as absolute (complete unmet need) and relative (some unmet need, inadequately met needs or poor quality care), stressing the importance of clarifying the threshold(s) that define care poverty.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous empirical research has shown that having a low income, living alone, and having poor subjective health status predicts unmet care needs ( Kröger et al, 2019 ). Furthermore, unmet needs are often related to loneliness, social isolation, and an inability to take part in social activities or move around outside of one’s home ( Blake et al, 2017 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this article we analyze how the presence, or more commonly absence, of care shaped our interviewees’ descriptions of emotional experiences tied to the home space. In addition, we aim to further develop the concept of care poverty theoretically, as it has previously mainly been used in quantitative research [e.g Kröger et al, 2019 ; however see Kröger 2010 ; Hill 2021 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Care Poverty Within the Home Space: Exploring the Emotional Experiences of Unmet Care Needs

Sihto

Aerschot

2021

Front. Sociol.

Self Cite

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Older adults face inequalities in care. The concept of care poverty has been developed to point out how unmet care needs are not just an individual issue but a phenomenon linked to social and economic disadvantage and societal inequality. In this paper, we approach the question of care poverty by focusing on its intertwinement with emotions and the home space. We analyze how the presence, or more commonly absence, of care shapes interviewees’ descriptions of emotional experiences tied to the home space. Our data consists of 12 semi-structured interviews conducted in 2019 and 2020 with customers of outreach work for older adults in Finland. These customers typically face a situation that can be characterized as care poverty: their care needs are not (or have not been) met by either the service system or informal sources. When analyzing the data, we followed the guidelines for thematic analysis proposed by Braun and Clarke. Our analysis shows how care and lack of care transform interviewees’ emotional connections with the home space, highlighting particularly three main themes: insecurity, isolation and belongingness. Our analysis reveals how lack of care can transform the home into an unsafe place; a space characterized by isolation, or a space where one sometimes ceases to feel at ease or “like oneself.” The emotional experience of home and being adequately cared for is also tied to the sense of (not) belonging to a place. Based on our analysis, we argue that as an experience, care poverty is not just about individual unmet needs and/or a scarcity of resources at the societal level; it should also be understood as deeply relational—born and shaped in interactions (or the lack of interactions) among people, and lived in and through relationships with others. Furthermore, we highlight the importance of a sense of belonging to the feeling of being adequately cared for.

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Precarious lives, precarious care: Young men's caring practices in three coastal towns in England

Bonner-Thompson

McDowell

2020

Emotion, Space and Society

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A decade of austerity and cuts to local services have had severe impacts on coastal towns in England, resulting in high levels of inequality and precarious employment prospects for many residents, including young men growing up in working class families. Forms of care typically provided by the family and the state are becoming unavailable, and access to secure employment has become difficult, especially for men with few educational qualifications, skills or work experience in places where work is seasonal. In this article we explore the effects of austerity and precariousness on the daily lives of 30 young men living in coastal towns, focusing on the ways they have come to care for each other. We build on feminist efforts to 'trouble 'care, highlighting unexpected caring practices, as well as the conflicts that shape barriers to care and the ways care itself may play out in careless ways, shaped by the austere contexts of its enactment. We pay attention to the significance of place and the everyday spaces in which care is practiced, as well as the ways in which friendship networks are paradoxically both caring and careless

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Distances and proximities of care: Analysing emotio-spatial distances in informal caring

Cited by 13 publications

References 32 publications

Tuning care relations between migrant caregivers and the elderly in Singapore

Tuning care relations between migrant caregivers and the elderly in Singapore

Care Poverty Within the Home Space: Exploring the Emotional Experiences of Unmet Care Needs

Precarious lives, precarious care: Young men's caring practices in three coastal towns in England

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