Seen, Heard and Counted: Rethinking Care in a Development Context

With two decades of research behind it, the "invisible economy" of care is a critical area of scientific enquiry and policy action. However, far from being global, much of the public debate has been limited to advanced industrialized countries. There is extensive scholarly conversation about the care dimensions of Europe′s welfare regimes, for example.

Meanwhile, governments in developing countries—where economic restructuring raises perennial concerns about social reproduction, and women′s increasing burdens of unpaid care work—are experimenting with new ways of responding to care needs in their societies.

Contributors from a wide range of backgrounds extend our understanding of the care economy in the developing world at a moment when existing systems are under strain and new ideas are coming into focus. Empirically grounded case studies of countries as diverse as China, Nicaragua, India and South Africa shed new light both on existing care arrangements and changing policies. This book offers important insights about what it will mean to provide dignified care in the twenty–first century.

1 Rethinking Care in a Development Context: An Introduction 1
Shahra Razavi

2 The Good, the Bad and the Confusing: The Political Economy of Social Care Expansion in South Korea 31
Ito Peng

3 South Africa: A Legacy of Family Disruption 51
Debbie Budlender and Francie Lund

4 Harsh Choices: Chinese Women’s Paid Work and Unpaid Care Responsibilities under Economic Reform 73
Sarah Cook and Xiao–yuan Dong

5 AWidening Gap? The Political and Social Organization of Childcare in Argentina 93
Eleonor Faur

6 Who Cares in Nicaragua? A Care Regime in an Exclusionary Social Policy Context 121
Juliana Martínez Franzoni and Koen Voorend

7 A Perfect Storm?Welfare, Care, Gender and Generations in Uruguay 149
Fernando Filgueira, Magdalena Guti´errez and Jorge Papadópulos

8 Stratified Familialism: The Care Regime in India through the Lens of Childcare 175
Rajni Palriwala and Neetha N.

9 Putting Two and Two Together? Early Childhood Education, Mothers’ Employment and Care Service Expansion in Chile and Mexico 205
Silke Staab and Roberto Gerhard

10 Going Global: The Transnationalization of Care 233
Nicola Yeates

Index 255

Shahra Razavi is Senior Researcher at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD). She specializes in the gender dimensions of social development, with a particular focus on livelihoods and social policy. Her recent books include The Gendered Impacts of Liberalization: Towards "Embedded Liberalism"? (2009) and Gender and Social Policy in a Global Context: Uncovering the Gendered Structure of ′the Social′, edited with Shireen Hassim (2006).