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Theses/projects/dissertations from 2024 2024.

WHAT IS THE READINESS OF SOCIAL WORK STUDENTS TO WORK WITH AUTISTIC INDIVIDUALS? , Ignacio Aguilar Pelaez

EXAMINING EXPERIENCES AMONG SOCIAL WORKERS WORKING WITH PARENTS WHO SUFFER FROM SUBSTANCE USE DISORDER , Alicia Alvarado and Eleno Zepeda

COVID-19, SOCIAL ISOLATION, AND MSW STUDENTS’ MENTAL HEALTH , Cassandra Barajas

Through the Lens of Families and Staff in Emergency Shelters , Elizabeth Barcenas

MACHISMO: THE IMPACT IT HAS ON HISPANIC MALE COLLEGE STUDENTS RECEIVING MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES , Sara Barillas and Alexander Aguirre

THE DISPROPORTIONATE IMPACTS OF CERTAIN FACTORS THAT DIFFERENTIATE THE AMOUNT OF MENTAL HEALTH REFERRALS OF SCHOOL A COMPARED TO SCHOOL B , Jesus Barrientos

Correlation of Adverse Childhood Experiences and Somatic Symptoms in Adolescents , Shannon Beaumont

Caregivers of Dialysis Patients , Alyssa Bousquet and Amelia Murillo

Self-Care Habits and Burnout Among County Social Workers on the Central Coast of California , Jaclyn Boyd and Denise Ojeda

GENDER DYSPHORIA IN ADOLESCENCE AND THE MODELS OF CARE: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW , Arnold Briseno

THE EFFECTS OF PARENTING STYLES ON COMMUNICATION AMONG ASIAN AMERICAN YOUNG ADULTS , Abigail Camarce

BARRIERS TO AND FACILITATORS OF CARE: EXPLORING HOW LOW-INCOME WOMEN ACCESS REPRODUCTIVE HEALTHCARE IN A RURAL COMMUNITY , Sydney Taylor Casey

CLIENT PERPETRATED VIOLENCE AND SAFETY CULTURE IN CHILD WELFARE: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW , Amber Castro

ACCESSIBILITY OF SERVICES FOR TRANSGENDER ADOLESCENTS FROM A CHILD WELFARE PERSPECTIVE , Eduardo Cedeno

WHAT ARE THE BARRIERS TO SEEKING PSYCHOTHERAPY SERVICES ACROSS DIFFERENT RACIAL AND ETHNIC GROUPS? , Deysee Chavez and Elisa Rodarte

Homelessness In The Coachella Valley , Katrina Clarke

Challenges Veterans Encounter Receiving or Seeking Mental Health Services , Denise D. Contreras and Andrea Ramirez

EXAMINING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PSYCHOSOCIAL INTERVENTIONS FOR OPIOID USE DISORDER: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW , Elizabeth Ashley Contreras

IS A SOCIAL SUPPORT BASED MODEL BETTER FOR TREATING ALCOHOLISM? A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW , Jordan Anthony Contreras

SOCIAL WORKERS’ PREPAREDNESS FOR PRACTICE WITH PATIENTS EXPERIENCING PSYCHOTIC DISORDERS , Paula Crespin

INVESTIGATING THE LEVEL OF EVIDENCE OF ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES AND PARENTING PRACTICES: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW , Eloisa Deshazer

MENTAL HELP-SEEKING: BARRIERS AMONG AFRICAN AMERICANS: THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY IN ADDRESSING THOSE BARRIERS , Charneka Edwards

Treatment not Punishment: Youth Experiences of Psychiatric Hospitalizations , Maira Ferrer-Cabrera

THE BARRIERS TO NATURAL OUTDOOR SPACES: PERSPECTIVES FROM PEOPLE WITH MOBILITY DISABILITIES , Sierra Fields and Kailah Prince

IMPLEMENTATION OF MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES AND CURRICULUM FOR ELEMENTARY-AGED CHILDREN , Indra Flores Silva and Jason Kwan

POOR ACADEMICS FROM COLLEGE STUDENTS GRIEVING THROUGH COVID 19 , Sarah Frost

COMPASSION FATIGUE IN SHORT TERM RESIDENTIAL THERAPEUTIC PROGRAM SETTINGS , Sandra Gallegos

A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE GUN VIOLENCE RESTRAINING ORDER , Bonnie Galloway and Yasmeen Gonzalez-Ayala

STRESS AND HELP-SEEKING IN FARMWORKERS IN THE COACHELLA VALLEY , Alexis Garcia and Daniela Mejia

THE EFFECTIVNESS OF FEDERAL PELL GRANT PROGRAM , Maria Delcarmen Garcia Arias and Ashley Hernandez

PARENT INVOLVEMENT AND EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES AMONG LATINO FAMILIES , Diana Garcia and Gabriela Munoz

IMPACT OF SCHOOL-BASED MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES ON STUDENT ATTENDANCE AT A SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SCHOOL DISTRICT , Johanna Garcia-Fernandez and Morgan Stokes

BARRIERS TO GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE , Gloria Garcia

THE CONTRIBUTING FACTORS OF PLACEMENT INSTABILITY FOR PREGNANT FOSTER YOUTH , Amanda Garza and Shayneskgua Colen

PROGRESSION OF BLACK WOMEN IN TENURE RANKED POSITIONS , Unique Givens

Child Maltreatment Primary Prevention Methods in the U.S.: A Systematic Review of Recent Studies , Maria Godoy-Murillo

Assessing and Meeting the Needs of Homeless Populations , Mitchell Greenwald

Parity In Higher Education In Prison Programs: Does It Exist? , Michael Lee Griggs and Vianey Luna

SURROGACY AND IT'S EFFECTS ON THE MENTAL HEALTH OF THE GESTATIONAL CARRIER , DayJahne Haywood

SUBSTANCE USE TREATMENT WITHIN THE US PRISON SYSTEM , Timothy Hicks

LGBTQ+ College Students Hopeful Future Expectations , Savannah Hull

EFFECTS OF VOLUNTARY REMOVAL ON AN IMMIGRANT FAMILY , Miriam Jimenez

THE MOTIVATING FACTORS AFFECTING THE CONTINUANCE AND COMPLETION OF SUBSTANCE USE TREATMENT FOR MOTHERS , Jacquetta Johnson

FACTORS AFFECTING THE ENROLLMENT AND GRADUATION RATES AMONGST AFRICAN AMERICAN MALES IN THE UNITED STATES , Tracie Johnson

SUPPORTING FORMERLY INCARCERATED INDIVIDUALS IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A QUANTITATIVE STUDY , Lisa Marie Jones-Wiertz

PROTESTANT CHURCH WORKERS' KNOWLEDGE OF CHILD ABUSE REPORTING AND REPORTING BEHAVIOR , Rachel Juedes

Social Media Told Me I Have A Mental Illness , Kathleen Knarreborg

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ROLE MODELS, SOCIOECONOMIC MOBILITY BELIEFS, AND ACADEMIC OUTCOMES , Christian Koeu and Marisol Espinoza Garcia

CULTURAL AND STRUCTURAL BARRIERS OF UTILIZING MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES IN A SCHOOL-BASED SETTING FOR LATINX POPULATIONS , Silvia Lozano and Bridgette Guadalupe Calderon

EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES FOR YOUTH THAT PARTICIPATED IN EXTENDED FOSTER CARE: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW , Kassandra Mayorga and Roxana Sanchez

NON-BINARY IDENTITY WITHIN COMPETENCY TRAINING FOR MENTAL/BEHAVIORAL HEALTH PROVIDERS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW , Alexis McIntyre

Childhood Neglect and Incarceration as a Adult , Marissa Mejia and Diana Gallegos

IMPACT OF RESOURCE SCARCITY ON UNDOCUMENTED STUDENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION , Sebastian Melendez Lopez

STUDY EXPLORING FEELINGS OF SELF-BLAME AND SHAME AMONG INDIVIDUALS RAISED BY SEVERELY MENTALLY ILL CAREGIVERS , Joanie Minion

THE OBSTACLES FACING HOMELESS VETERANS WITH MENTAL ILLNESS WHEN OBTAINING HOUSING , Melissa Miro

STUDENTS OF HIGHER EDUCATION RECEIVING SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM AND ITS IMPACT ON MENTAL HEALTH , Cristina Palacios Mosqueda

COMMERCIALLY SEXUALLY EXPLOITED CHILDREN TARGETED WITHIN SOCIAL SERVICES , Britny Ragland

ART THERAPY FOR BEREAVED SIBLINGS AFTER PEDIATRIC CANCER DEATH , Daniela Ramirez-Ibarra

HOW DID THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPACT EXTENDED FOSTER CARE SOCIAL WORKERS WHILE PROVIDING SOCIAL SERVICES , Omar Ramirez and Victoria Lopez

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF BODY MODIFICATION BIASES IN THE MENTAL HEALTH FIELD , Lonese Ramsey

Bridging Training Gaps: Assessing Knowledge and Confidence of Mental Health Interns in Opioid Misuse Intervention for School-Aged Children and Adolescents , Carolina Rodriguez and Gabriela Guadalupe Gonzalez

PERCEPTIONS OF YOUTH ATHLETE SAFETY PARENTS VS DIRECTORS , Nicole Anais Rodriguez

SPIRITUALITY AND RECOVERY FROM ADDICTION: EXPERIENCES OF NARCOTICS ANONYMOUS MEMBERS , Elizabeth Romberger

ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES AND ALTRUISM: THE IMPACT ON SOCIAL WORK AS A CAREER CHOICE , Nancy Salas and Brittany Altuna

MAJOR FACTORS OF SUSTAINING RECOVERY AFTER RELAPSE FROM A SUBSTANCE USE DISORDER , Amanda Tei Sandhurst

UNDERSTANDING THE PERSPECTIVES AND ATTITUDES OF 12-STEP PARTICIPANTS TOWARDS MEDICATION-ASSISTED TREATMENT , Christopher Scott

THE UTILIZATION OF MUSIC AND AUTONOMOUS SENSORY MERIDIAN RESPONSE IN REDUCING STRESS , Robert Scott

THE AFTERMATH OF THE PANDEMIC’S EFFECT ON COLLEGE STUDENT DEPRESSION , Lorena Sedano

Exploring the Experiences of Minority Former Foster Youths During and Post Care: A Qualitative Study , Caithlyn Snow

Factors that Contribute to Disparities in Access to Mental Health Services within Hispanic Adults , Jasmine Soriano

THE CHALLENGES TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ADMINISTRATION FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES MEMORANDUM: FOSTER CARE AS A SUPPORT TO FAMILIES , Rebecca Joan Sullivan-Oppenheim

RESILIENCE IN FATHERHOOD: EXPLORING THE IMPACT OF ABSENT FATHERS ON BLACK AMERICAN MEN'S PARENTING NARRATIVES AND PRACTICES , Ericah Thomas

FACTORS THAT IMPACT FOSTER YOUTHS’ HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION , Esther Thomas

EXAMINING A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SEXUAL SATISFACTION AND CHILD MALTREATMENT , Amanda Titone

THE PRESENT STRUGGLES OF IMMIGRANT FARMWORKERS IN CALIFORNIA , Leslie Torres and Angelica Huerta

PROGRAM EVALUATION OF SCHOOL-BASED MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELING SERVICES , Yvette Torres and Emily Ann Rodriguez

Stressors, Caffeine Consumption, and Mental Health Concerns among College Students , Stacey Trejo

MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT HELP SEEKING ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS AMONG LATINX COMMUNITY , Nancy Vieyra

JUSTICE-INVOLVED STUDENTS: EFFECTS OF USING SUPPORT SERVICES TO OVERCOME BARRIERS , Gabby Walker and Sofia Alvarenga

MANDATED REPORTERS’ KNOWLEDGE AND REPORTING OF CHILD ABUSE , Alexis Reilly Warye

THE COMMUNITY RESILIENCY MODEL (CRM) APPLIED TO TEACHER’S WELL-BEING , John Waterson

Addressing Rural Mental Health Crises: An Alternative to Police , Faith Ann Weatheral-block

Theses/Projects/Dissertations from 2023 2023

PROLONGED EXPOSURE TO CONGREGATE CARE AND FOSTER YOUTH OUTCOMES , Tiffany Acklin

YOU CALL US TREATMENT RESISTANT: THE EFFECTS OF BIASES ON WOMEN WITH BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER , Cassidy Acosta

EXAMINING SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH OF FORMERLY INCARCERATED CALIFORNIA STUDENTS WHO GRADUATED FROM PROJECT REBOUND , Ashley C. Adams

ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO POLICE INTERVENTIONS WHEN RESPONDING TO MENTAL HEALTH CRISES INCIDENTS , Karen Rivera Apolinar

Understanding Ethical Dilemmas in Social Work Practice , Arielle Arambula

IS THERE A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PROFESSORIAL-STUDENT RACIAL MATCH AND ACADEMIC SATISFACTION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN SOCIAL WORK STUDENTS , Ashlei Armstead

NON-SPANISH SPEAKING LATINOS' EXPERIENCES OF INTRAGROUP MARGINALIZATION AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ETHNIC IDENTITY , Marissa Ayala

SERVICES AVAILABLE IN THE MIXTEC COMMUNITY AND THE BARRIERS TO THOSE SERVICES , Currie Bailey Carmon

IMPACT OF OUTDOOR ADVENTURE ON THE SELF-ESTEEM, SELF-CONFIDENCE, AND COMFORT LEVEL OF BLACK AND BROWN GIRLS , Nathan Benham

THE ROLE UNDOCUMENTED STUDENT RESOURCE CENTERS PLAY IN SUPPORTING UNDOCUMENTED STUDENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION , Cynthia Boyzo

Program Evaluation of Teen Parent Support Group , Brianne Yvonne Irene Brophy

THE IMPACT THE JOB STRESS OF A CHILD WELFARE SOCIAL WORKER HAS ON THE QUALITY OF THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH THEIR INTIMATE PARTNER , Nadine Cazares

Adverse Effects for Siblings Who Witness Child Abuse , Leslie Chaires

ASIAN DISCRIMINATION: IN THE FIELD OF SOCIAL WORK , Sunghay Cho

PERCEIVED FINANCIAL STRAIN AND ITS EFFECTS ON COLLEGE STUDENTS’ WELFARE , Monica Contreras and Clarissa Adrianna Martinez

The Media and Eating Disorders , Diane Corey

INCREASING TEACHER AWARENESS OF MENTAL HEALTH IN CHILDREN , Sarah Alexis Cortes

The Investigation of Knowledge and Practice of Child Welfare Workers Providing Case Management to Children with Disabilities , Giselle Cruz

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Your Undergraduate Dissertation in Health and Social Care

• Nicholas Walliman - Oxford Brookes University, UK
• Jane Appleton
• Description

This is a revised edition of Nicholas Walliman's best-selling Your Undergraduate Dissertation , which has been specially tailored to the needs of those studying health, social care and related subjects. All the central topics are covered, with comprehensive information and guidance on crucial issues such as ethics, research governance and appraising the quality of the evidence. Relevant 'real life' examples are also included, drawn from a wide range of settings.

This guide offers a genuinely accessible and supportive source of advice that will be welcomed by undergraduates in working towards their final year dissertation in health and social care. SAGE Study Skills are essential study guides for students of all levels. From how to write great essays and succeeding at university, to writing your undergraduate dissertation and doing postgraduate research, SAGE Study Skills help you get the best from your time at university. Visit the SAGE Study Skills hub  for tips, resources and videos on study success!

Supplements

The text is difficult to read and there are far more engaging books on this subject. Really not applicable to widening participation students.

I will be recommending this book for health care degree learners. The book is set out well and has a variety of information that is useful not only when preparing for dissertation in both health care and social work. Some sections go beyond dissertation and thus also can be an invaluable reference book when in professional practice.

this text is recommended for all Undergraduate students about to embark on their major project

very helpful book easy to navigate.

This the perfect text for our public health department's junior year writing course.

This book was sent during the summer when I was unable to review it in enough depth. However I shall be suggesting it as a supplemental text

This book will be recommended to our students. It contains some invaluable chapters that students will find useful.

This is a useful text which contains valuable information for all undergraduate students completing their dissertaion. I have given it a personal recomendation to a number of students who have learning differences as I feel it will benefit them particualrly.

In addition to midwifery students, I will also be recomending this text to nursing, radipgraphy and social work students I am in contact with during Interprofessional learning modules.

A book I have recommended to several students enbarking on writing their dissertation. No feedback as yet as to whether sudents have found it useful.

Presented in a question and answer ‘manual’ style text this book is a must have for undergraduates wishing to get a successful grasp on the complex field of research. It offers a clear introduction to various types, approaches and methods used and accepted within the discipline of Health and Social Care. Te title of the book does not do the text justice - it would be advisable to obtain this user friendly read before approaching any written paper/essay involving research, and can then be referred to during extended projects as a guide to focus and keep on track!! With plenty of suggested further reading this book makes a great companion on an otherwise, LONELY journey.

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Social Work thesis and dissertation collection

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Your battles inspire me: inclusion experiences of children with intellectual disability in chinese primary classrooms , from direct provision to housing: a qualitative study of the housing journeys of refugees in ireland , redemption theory : redeeming the sins of the father : grandfathers' experiences and practices in a border community in ireland , constructions of older people and their care during the coronavirus pandemic in ireland: a grounded theory analysis of official discourses , navigating multi-locality in rural-urban and return migration: a study of young migrant mothers' experience in beijing .

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Advanced Social Care Practice PG Steps (Available through Research@Thea AIT)

Some sample bibliographies in harvard style, past ma in child and youth care dissertations (available through research@thea ait), for information.

• Critical Evaluation courtesy of Mount St Vincent University This link opens in a new window
• Guide to the Standards of Proficiency for Social Care Workers

The Role of Self-Awareness and Reflection in Social Care Practice 

• Balancing work and study
• International/overseas students
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• Social Care as a profession
• Social Care placements/Field placements
• Student Attitudes towards Aspergers
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• 2013-2014 examples
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• From Institution to Integration: The perspectives and experiences of disability sector staff in the transition to New Directions by Derek Bryan
• The Transition to Adulthood and Independence: a Study of Young People Leaving Residential Care

Just for information:  The normal library rule of only displaying/receiving Dissertations which obtained a mark of over 70% does not apply in the case of the MA in Child and Youth Care Dissertations.

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Dissertation for Health and Social Care Professionals HEA4081

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The dissertation is a key component of a Masters programme and is the culmination of the student’s postgraduate study. It enables the student to focus upon a significant piece of investigative enquiry from conceptualisation through to completion. Students are encouraged to produce a rigorous dissertation that has a positive consequence for practice. Research is interpreted to include empirical research involving qualitative and/or quantitative methods, service evaluation, clinical audit or systematic review. The dissertation must be based on an aspect of practice related to the student’s area of interest. The subject will be open to discussion and negotiation.

If your tuition fee is being paid by a sponsor or you are a sponsor paying a student’s fee, you are required to send a copy of a purchase order to [email protected] .

For further guidance please visit: Sponsored students – Edge Hill University

Who is this module for?

Students wishing to complete a Masters degree having successfully gained 120 credits at M Level.

What are the key aims of the module?

• To further develop the knowledge and skills gained in previous study
• To conceptualise, plan, undertake, analyse and present a piece of original research or investigative inquiry in the student’s area of professional practice.

How will I study?

This module normally requires attendance at five half-day sessions. Additional sessions can be arranged with your Dissertation Supervisor. The module overall lasts 52 weeks.

What will I study?

This is an independent study with support from personal academic supervisor allocated.

There will be series of workshops and briefing sessions for all students and supervisors.

How will I be assessed?

Completion of a dissertation that should be approximately 12,000 words in length (excluding footnotes, references and appendices).

On successful completion you will:

• Complete a piece of research or investigative enquiry related to own area of professional practice
• Justify the choice of methodology including selection study design and data analysis
• Identify the strengths, limitations and implications for future study and/or investigation
• Recognise the ethical considerations encountered during the course of the study demonstrating adherence to appropriate governance processes.

How to apply

Module availability varies from year to year and will be subject to minimum student numbers being achieved. Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis. Due to the popularity of some modules it may be that the module is fully booked when your application is received. We will include your details on a waiting list and allocate you a place on the next available intake.

We encourage you to apply as early as possible to give you the best chance to obtain a place on your preferred cohort, module applications will close as soon as the module is full. Applications received within two weeks of the start date may have to be considered for a later cohort.

For details of how to apply, please visit the apply page

For further information regarding this module please contact your programme lead.

This module cannot be studied on a standalone basis. This module is a core module for the following programmes:

• MCh Surgery

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Conceptualising care: critical perspectives on informal care and inequality

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• Published: 15 December 2023
• Volume 22 , pages 53–70, ( 2024 )

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• Michelle Peterie 1 &
• Alex Broom 1  

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Informal care occupies a paradoxical place in contemporary societies. It is at once reified as an inherent social good, and minimised, devalued, and pushed to the margins. The current ‘care crisis’ is bringing these tensions into sharp relief, fuelling renewed interest in care and its absences across a wide range of disciplines. In this article, we present an overview of five key literatures for comprehending informal care, with a focus on issues of inequality and injustice. These bodies of scholarship—which, respectively, emphasise the political-economic, affective, policy, geographic, and ecological dimensions of informal care—together furnish a critical conceptualisation of informal care that both recognises care’s social value, and underlines its embeddedness in systems and structures of oppression. Informal care, we show, evades easy definition, requiring a sophisticated array of critical concepts to capture its everyday complexities, avoid reductionism, and ultimately enable individual and collective flourishing.

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Introduction

In the popular imaginary, informal care is frequently romanticised. Providing unpaid care to another—a child, a spouse, a parent, a stranger—is applauded as a virtuous and deeply human action. Yet, this work of care is also sanitised, minimised, and pushed to the margins. As the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed, the day-to-day realities of unpaid care provision frequently jar with the rose-tinted ideal (e.g. Muldrew et al. 2021 ; Wagenaar and Prainsack 2021 ; Tunstall 2022 ; Lloyd 2023 ). Within the social sciences, growing recognition of this discord and of an accelerating ‘care crisis’ (e.g. Dowling 2021 ; Fine 2012 ; Williams 2018 ) is fuelling renewed scholarly interest in the intimate economies and relationalities of (formal and informal) care. Much of this scholarship—diverse and multidisciplinary as it is—advances a more critical conception of care as both an intuitive locus of social value, and a sphere of profound (though not immutable) inequality and injustice.

Care, in its broadest sense, is often taken to refer to “physical and emotional labour” (Conradson 2003 , p. 451) carried out on behalf of another. Within such ‘commonsense’ definitions, further delineation is typically made between ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ care—the former referring to acts of care carried out in the context of paid employment, and the latter to acts of care undertaken without formal recompense, often in the context of existing social relationships. In both contexts, caring action is generally assumed to be animated and underpinned by caring feelings , whether these arise from the moral disposition of the carer themselves or from the specificities of the carer’s relationship with the intended beneficiaries of their actions. As thus understood, care encompasses both physical acts of rendering assistance (‘caring for’) and internal feelings of concern or commitment (‘caring about’) (Bowlby 2012 ). As an ideal type, care melds both action and sentiment.

Despite the apparent straightforwardness of such conceptions, theorising care—and understanding the contemporary contours of informal care specifically—is a delicate proposition. As a plethora of social science scholars have argued (e.g. Bom and Stockel 2021 ; Bubeck 1995 ; Clement 1996 ; Gordon et al. 1996 ; Goodin 1985 ; Held 2005 ; Kittay 1999 ; Tronto 1998 ; Lynch 2022 ; Mol 2009 ; Fine 2007 ), popular understandings of care gloss over many of its lived complexities. Conceptualisations such as those offered above, partnering action and sentiment, frequently fail to account for dimensions such as care’s exploitative and coercive potential (Williams 2018 ); the possibility of fragile, fraught, or absence of emotional intimacies (Broom et al. 2016 ); the existence of relational interdependencies and entanglements that collapse simple binaries between ‘carers’ and ‘care recipients’ (Siira et al. 2019 ; Molyneaux et al. 2010 ); and the difficulties sometimes associated with delineating ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ care (Fine 2007 ; Glucksmann 2005 ). They also obscure the unpaid care work performed for (and potentially by ) non-human animals and environments (Barca 2020 ).

Our aim in this article is therefore to present an enhanced theoretical scaffolding for informal care, which captures its evolving and enduring nuances. While it is not our intention to develop or advance any one definition of informal care, we begin (in the interests of pragmatism) with a working definition of informal care, adapted from Bernice Fisher and Joan Tronto’s ( 1990 ) definition of care more broadly. Informal care, as thus defined, is an unpaid activity “that includes everything we do to maintain, continue, and repair our 'world' so that we can live in it as well as possible. That world includes our bodies, ourselves, and our environment” (Fisher and Tronto 1990 , p. 40). This definition encompasses the intensive and multidimensional labour involved in raising a child or caring for a loved-one at the end of life, but also allows room for the (less recognisable) forms of care involved in advocating for a stranger, being a friend, nourishing one’s own body, or working to revegetate a threatened habitat. Using this definition as a pragmatic jumping off point, the remainder of this article will explore key theoretical resources from across the social sciences to advance a critical and notably interdisciplinary theorisation of informal care Footnote 1 that troubles the narrow assumptions that continue to structure many mainstream renderings. More specifically, we aim to present a high-level overview of five key literatures which—notwithstanding their differing emphases—each contest the reification of informal care as an inherent good, and help to furnish a conception of informal care that both recognises informal care’s social value and underlines its embeddedness in systems and structures of inequality.

Informal (political) economies of care

Recent scholarship on the political economy of care—particularly that informed by critical feminist and Marxist perspectives—sheds light on the ways that informal care has been generated, co-opted, reconfigured, and even absorbed into the mechanisations of capitalism (e.g. Aulenbacher et al. 2018a , b ). A key tenet of this scholarship is that informal care entails a distinct paradox. Informal care is a critical pillar for the advancement of our increasingly financialised worlds, yet it is one that operates a shadow economy without representation in GDP or in other mechanisms societies use to account for value. Despite being the infrastructure that drives willingness and capacity for paid labour, informal care is (and has historically been) devalued and unrecognised (Henry 1987 ; Hallgrímsdóttir et al. 2011 ). This is most clearly evident in failures to financially compensate the caring activities that are carried out ‘informally’ (often by women) in the home, but pervades the broader scene of formal and informal care. Caring activities, scholars in this area attest, deliver considerable value to those being cared for as well as to societies and economy, yet they are rarely recognised as ‘real work’ deserving of payment (Glendinning and Kemp 2006 ; Fraser 2022 ). Informal economies of care thus involve the provision and/or exchange of care without financial return and, very often, at financial loss (to certain individuals). Insofar as financial benefits are generated, these are delivered to other actors within the scene, rather than to carers themselves. This perspective allows consideration of dialectical tensions between formal economy and the shadow economies of informal care. Yet, insofar as it recognises and advances remuneration for unpaid care work, it also invites a problematisation of the ‘formal’/‘informal’ care binary (see Fine 2007 , and Glucksmann 2005 , for a critique of this dichotomy).

For prominent scholars in this area, the tussle between the formal economy and the maintenance of informal care (Hartmann 1998 ) is critical to the successful operation of the financialised worlds in which they exist. So much so, in fact, that informal care economies can be seen as fundamental to the structures of financial capitalism. Feminist philosopher Nancy Fraser’s ( 2022 ) Cannibal Capitalism , for example, argues that capitalism is not just an economic system but an ‘institutionalised societal order’ (Fraser 2022 , p. 24). Within this order, she posits, a clear distinction is maintained between ‘the economy’ and a range of purportedly non-economic social spheres. Yet, it is these very social spheres that underpin and enable economic production. Capitalisms expansion depends on the ‘cannibalisation’ of these (concealed) sources of wealth.

From at least the industrial era onward […] capitalist societies have separated the work of social reproduction from that of economic production. Associating the first with women, and the second with men, they have enveloped reproductive activities in a cloud of sentiment, as if this work should be its own reward—or failing that, as if it need only be paid a pittance, unlike work done directly for capital, which is (in theory) paid a wage on which the worker can actually live. In this way, capitalist societies created an institutional basis for new, modern forms of women’s subordination. Splitting off reproductive labor from the larger universe of human activities, in which women’s work previously held a recognized place, they relegated it to a newly institutionalized domestic sphere where its social importance was obscured, shrouded in the mists of newly invented notions of femininity. And in this new world, where money became a primary medium of power, its being unpaid or underpaid sealed the matter: those who perform essential reproductive work are made structurally subordinate to those who earn living wages for surplus-value generating labor in the official economy, even as the work of the first is what enables the work of the second. (Fraser 2022 , p. 46)

The capitalist economy, Fraser notes, ‘free rides’ on “activities of provisioning, caregiving, and interaction that produce and maintain social bonds” (Fraser 2022 , p. 45), yet affords them no monetary value.

In this context, the devaluing of informal economies of care can be interpreted as a means of securing hegemonic power structures—often along race and gender lines. That is, the unequal division of care responsibilities functions to exclude some from the intergenerational accumulation of capital and assets, while concentrating power, resources, and wellbeing with others (e.g. Clement 1996 ; Gilligan 1982 ; Graham 1991 ; Poole and Isaacs 1997 ; Ungerson 1983 ). Women typically undertake significantly more informal care work than men, with ramifications for their ability to hold (well paid) jobs and be financially independent (e.g. Fine 2012 ; Mozhaeva 2021 ). The dominant social perception of women as inherently caring at a bio-social level can be understood, in this context, as a normative construction that offers a convenient rationale for allocating a disproportionate load of care responsibilities to women (Williams 2018 ; Jenkins 2020 ; Chambers 2001 ; Palmer and Eveline 2012 ) and subsequently reducing their capacity for asset accumulation or income generation. Similarly, the phenomenon whereby wealthier individuals (including women) outsource care responsibilities to others (often people of colour (e.g. Coe 2019 )) reproduces socio-economic inequalities in ways that are far from accidental. Informal care therefore emerges as a fraught paradox. On one hand, it is a locus of intuitive cultural value. On the other hand, it is a vehicle of inequality and cultural domination that reproduces patriarchal, class and racial oppression in the service of financialised capitalism.

What these political economic and feminist perspectives reveal is that the everyday undulations of informal care are shaped by histories, social structures, and interpersonal relations which afford differential obligations to be in caring relations (Folbre 2006 , 1994 ; Bittman et al. 2003 ; see also Fine 2007 , on the social division of care). Indeed, a key takeaway from this scholarship is that social, political, and economic structures heavily mediate the content of caring moments—creating needs and normative obligations and inflecting the emotional and material experience of informal care. In addition to a political economy of informal care, we might consequently talk about a moral economy of informal care (cf. Sayer 2000 , 2007 ) and the connections between forms of normativity and dominant (or naturalised) socio-material practices (see also Tronto 2020 ). This includes how participation in informal care can be deployed (and requested) as a moral commitment and/or coercive cultural form (cf. Sayer 2007 ). As well as how such moralities create regimes that disallow some emotional expressions (e.g. not wanting to care, or feeling angry, ambivalent or estranged) and compel care (by some) through moralities of shame and blame. As thus understood, the work of informal care does not occur naturally or inevitably in the context of (gendered and racialised) carer’s ‘innate’ caring dispositions, but rather emerges from and functions to reproduce the social, political, and economic hierarchies of our current world. Such emergences include affective pulls and tensions between entanglement and estrangement (Broom et al. 2020 ).

Affective entanglements of care

Another key literature for comprehending informal care concerns care’s affective dimensions (Ahmed 2004a , b ; Lehmann et al. 2019 ; Read 2022 ; Clough 2008 ; Blackman and Venn 2010 ; Mazzarella 2020 ). While Marxist-feminist analysis has denaturalised the gender and class structuring of patriarchal capitalism, it has also tended to focus on the expropriation of the physical labour of care, which has placed less emphasis on care’s “emotional, agentic and relational aspects” (Williams 2018 , p. 549). The ‘affective turn’ in humanities and social science scholarship, by contrast, has usefully drawn attention to the visceral, autonomous and (often) non-conscious vitalities and intensities that circulate within and between bodies and environments (Dragojlovic and Broom 2018 ; Stern 2019 ). This work underlines the embodied and relational nature of emotions, including those that constitute and animate caring relationships. Affect, as conceptualised here, arises “in the midst of in-between-ness : in the capacities to act and be acted upon […] in those intensities that pass body to body” (Seigworth and Gregg 2010 , p. 1). That is, emotions are seen as sematic, but also as fundamentally relational—creating what Sara Ahmed describes as “the very effect of the surfaces or boundaries of bodies and the worlds” (Ahmed 2004a ). For Ahmed ( 2004a , b ), individual subjects are single points in a broader circulation of emotions. This work underlines the emotional and affective complexity of being in (or outside of) care, arguing that caring relationality is assembled and reproduced through what Ahmed ( 2004a , b ) describes as ‘sticky’ associations. Associations, significantly, that bind some people together while separating others.

As intimated above, the affective turn has occurred in relation to concerns about embodiment, which frame care as visceral and sensory. Through this lens, care appears in/as ‘ordinary affects’ (Stewart 2007 ) such as a “tug at the heart strings” (Nussbaum 2001 , p. 325) or a sense of having been moved or touched. Care is an affective state, but it is also active and agentic. Through this lens, the significance of caring feelings lies, in part, in their propensity to animate movement and facilitate particular forms of knowing, acting, or relating (Stewart 2007 ). The capacity to care is intimately connected with the body’s capacity to affect and be affected, as well as with the body’s existence in a perpetual state of becoming (Blackman 2012 ; Seigworth and Gregg 2010 ; Dragojlovic and Broom 2018 ). To care is to feel and be moved by something at a bodily level. Care or carelessness might be present in the sensations and emotions experienced when passing someone or something, and in the embodied desire to stop or speed up. It might present as a feeling of needing to assist, or a compulsion to disappear when confronted with the other’s suffering. Such visceral pushes and pulls occur across the spectrum of relationships, with their intensities varying.

Lynch and colleagues (Lynch 2022 ; Lynch et al. 2009 , 2021 ; Cantillon and Lynch 2017 ) write at length about these affective dimensions of care, emphasising affective inequalities and injustices therein. Echoing key insights from the aforementioned scholarship on capitalism’s parasitic dependency on unpaid care work, Lynch and colleagues argue that inequalities are not only generated via the economic, cultural, and political systems of capitalism, but also via capitalism’s ‘affective system’. The problem of affective inequality, they posit, extends beyond disparities in who is expected to perform the unpaid yet socially and economically indispensable work of providing informal caring—or even who is expected to do the work of generating and performing caring feelings (see Hochschild 2012 ). Giving and receiving care is also a basic human need, and one that remains unmet in many people’s lives.

Human beings typically have both a need and a capacity for intimacy, attachment and caring relationships. The ability to recognise and feel some sense of affiliation and concern for others is a typical human trait, and everyone needs, at least sometimes, to be cared for. People generally value the various forms of social engagement that emanate from such relations and define themselves in terms of them. Solidary bonds of friendship or kinship are frequently what brings meaning, warmth and joy to life. Being cared for is also a fundamental prerequisite for human development. […] Being deprived of the capacity to develop supportive affective relations of love, care and solidarity, or of the experience of engaging in them when one has the capacity, is therefore a serious human deprivation for most people: it is a core dimension of affective inequality. (Lynch et al. 2009 , p. 1)

This understanding of care focusses attention not only to who is made to shoulder a disproportionate ‘burden’ of (physical and/or emotional) care work, but also who is or is not permitted and resourced to act on the human impulse to care. Equally, it asks us to consider “who needs (different degrees of) love, care and solidarity, which is all of humanity at different times” (Lynch et al. 2021 , p. 57) and whose care needs are or are not satisfied.

An important aspect of this equation, which is particularly relevant for understanding inequalities in informal care specifically, concerns inequalities in opportunities to give or receive love. Scholars thus talk about ‘love labour’—“the emotional work involved in loving a given person [which] cannot be assigned to another by a commercial or even a voluntary arrangement without undermining the premise of mutuality that is at the heart of intimacy” (Cantillon and Lynch 2017 , p. 170). As Sara Cantillon and Kathleen Lynch ( 2017 ) explain, research in the neurobiology of attachment attests to the important of emotionally intimate and non-substitutable connections in securing a sense of self and affording ontological stability. To be deprived of love, they conclude, is “a major social injustice” (Cantillon and Lynch 2017 , p. 170). Yet, emotions and affects (like other social resources) are not distributed evenly in society, and sticky associations mean that different bodies routinely experience differential opportunities to be in loving relationship. As Hillary McBride ( 2021 ) observes, ‘body hierarchies’—including the social devaluation of bodies that diverge from the white, thin, able-bodied ideal, as well as broader social and economic inequalities that map onto bodily differences—mediate access to care, include at the level of primary (loving) relations. Equally, occupying a place of social or economic privilege—for example, by virtue of being male, white, citizen, able-bodied or so forth—may afford some individuals more opportunities to do the affective/meaning work of care (e.g. expressing grief, intimacy, or love) while others are left to do the practical work of caring (e.g. meeting physical needs for hygiene, food, or shelter). This scholarship expands understandings of inequalities in informal care to include not only the need for freedom from the uneven burdens or responsibilities of care, but also for freedom to give and receive care as a basic human need (see Dragojlovic and Broom 2018 ; Gordon et al. 1996 ).

This focus on relationality and entanglements—including the ways that people are mutually constituted through their interactions—speaks to the value of care for individual and societal wellbeing. It also enables more nuanced analysis of the complexities of care as a lived and felt experience. Affect scholars note that care can take ambivalent and contradictory forms (Wetherell 2012 ), and that many injustices have been committed “in its name” (Lynch et al. 2021 , p. 57). Simple binaries between care ‘givers’ and care ‘recipients’ have been critiqued for both ignoring interdependencies and reproducing the unequal power dynamics that often inflect care-in-relation. Within and beyond primary relationships, this literature attests, ‘caring’ intentions can easily disintegrate into a fractious moral economy, with care becoming a discursive rationale for counterproductive forms of ‘help’ or intervention (e.g. Lavis et al. 2016 ; Klein 2020 ; Darling 2011 ; Hoggett 2006 ; Peterie 2023 ; Peterie et al. 2022 ). Indeed, care can be coercive, paternalistic, and even cruel (Berlant 2004 ; Sirriyeh 2018 ; Lavis et al. 2016 ). As a practice of binding and/or dividing, care occurs in the context of broader affective worlds, and at times reproduces hegemonic patterns of belonging and/or exclusion. Being able to ‘give’ care may therefore be a privilege while being in receipt of care may be a burden—a reality that challenges much of the empirical scene of informal care analysis and its focus on the ‘costs’ of caring (Molyneaux et al. 2010 ). This is usefully articulated as an affective tussle of care, with the scene of care creating trouble and tension rather than occupying a neutral moral territory. What this scholarship ultimately advances is a deeper recognition of the ‘messiness’ of care as an embodied entanglement—a scene of normative, affective, discursive relations, in which both the imposition of care and the desire to care are tied to the affective temporalities of the present (Ungerson 1987 ; Kittay 1999 ; Parker 1993 ).

The administration of care and neglect

As we have begun to see, informal care—typically carried out in the ‘private’ of everyday life—exists at the interstices of affect, institutional forms, political landscapes, and economic paradigms. Adding to this picture of intermingling relations, social policy scholars stress that access to tangible and intangible resources—from sick days, to parental and bereavement leave, to welfare safety nets—shapes caring relations and associated inequalities. This critical policy studies literature tends to explore the relationship between what is subsidised by the modern state and how it impacts the interpersonal ‘private’ lives of citizens and residents.

This area of scholarship has very often centred on the contemporary context of neoliberalism (Moss et al. 2006 ; see also Fine and Glendinning 2005 ). And, moreover, on the administration of care in the context of a gradual retraction in government supports across the political spectrum (Sevenhuijsen 2000 ) as neoliberalism bites into historical safety nets. As a political-economic project, neoliberalism is premised on a commitment to market principles as the rightful arbiter of human life (Grady and Harvie 2011 ). Personal liberty and liberation from government intervention—operationalised through the winding back of the welfare state and the weakening of regulatory frameworks to allow free trade and private entrepreneurship—has been a rallying cry of neoliberal reformers. Within the neoliberal schema, the individual’s core responsibility is “to find means of self-sustenance and not to be ‘assisted’ by society” (Amable 2011 , pp. 22–23). Insofar as social supports are available, neoliberal advocates insist that they should not be redistributive, but should rather be governed by the (moral) ideals of hard work and personal responsibility, such that even the provision of aid is embedded in relationships of ‘mutual obligation’ and exchange (Amable 2011 ). As Hasenfeld and Garrow ( 2012 , p. 301) summarise, neoliberalism “recasts the role of the welfare state by shifting responsibility from state to market and from the collective to the individual”.

From a critical social policy perspective, one of the greatest challenges to informal care in the late 20 th and now twenty-first century has been the (attempted) leveraging of community goodwill in efforts to shrink welfare states and (re)assemble care as a private responsibility as part of this neoliberal project (Pickard 2012 ; Berlant 2004 ). The contradiction of concurrent retraction (of state) and demands for expansion (of community) have occurred in various countries (e.g. Berlant 2004 ; Patenaude 2019 ), but David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ in the UK is frequently evoked as a particularly striking example (Dowling and Harvie 2014 ). The Big Society Cameron envisaged involved the outsourcing of state support to the ‘shadow state’ (Wolch 1990 ) of the third sector and, significantly, an emphasis on market-based solutions to social needs (Espiet-Kilty 2016 ). An often remarked-upon aspect of projects of this kind is their rationalisation of austerity and welfare privatisation through a discursive valorisation of the turn to community-based and volunteer-led care, as well as societal/community entrepreneurship.

The Global Financial Crisis has brought these dynamics even further into focus, triggering new waves of austerity that double-down on dominant neoliberal logics of individualisation and responsibilisation. As Emma Dowling ( 2021 , p. 7) observes in the UK context ,

In the wake of the Global Financial Crisis, Britain has undergone a deep restructuring, most visible in the extensive austerity measures supposedly geared to enabling economic recovery. The austerity measures implemented post-crisis offloaded more of the cost of care from the state onto individuals, households and communities. There is an emotional dimension to austerity, too. The implementation of such measures affects how people think of themselves and of others and how they seek to act in the world. Austerity measures serve to convince individuals that the only person they can truly rely on is themselves, supported, at best, by their family, and implying a greater reliance on informal support and charity provision. Yet the crisis obscures as much as it allows us to see: austerity measures that offload the cost of care onto the shoulders of the most disadvantaged in society are fuelled less by necessity than by an ideological agenda.

As Dowling’s ( 2021 ) analysis makes clear, the turn to community and the family to meet social needs has gone hand in hand with the systematic weakening of supports for caring families, communities, and societies (Hoppania and Vaittinen 2015 ). Informal caring relations have been ‘lent on’ even more than previously to perform functions hitherto performed by the state, even as they have been derailed through concerted political efforts to remove the state supports that underwrite capacity and willingness to provide (intensive) informal care to begin with (Pickard 2012 ). As Liz Lloyd ( 2023 , p. 1) observes, “unpaid care is in a particularly perilous situation because with social care policies confined to the margins, unable to attract political attention or economic resource, pressures on unpaid carers with continue unabated”.

The winding back of state support for caring activities specifically (e.g. via parenting and carers payments) has been a frequently emphasised part of this picture, but so too has the broader dismantling of many aspects of the traditional welfare state, including by attaching stringent conditions to the income support payments offered, for example, to people experiencing unemployment and acute financial stress (e.g. Watts and Fitzpatrick 2018 ; Peterie et al. 2019 ). Such developments, it has been noted, have coincided with changes in the labour force—such as a shift towards ‘gig’ and ‘disruptive’ economies (Vallas and Schor 2020 )—leaving many unemployed and employed workers with few options during key life moments that require high levels of care (death and dying, childbirth, mental health problems etc.). As Watts and Fitzpatrick ( 2018 , p. 100) note in their book Welfare Conditionality, the utilisation of financial ‘sanctions’ against welfare recipients who fail to meet the behavioural conditions associated with their payments has further been implicated in “food insecurity, serious housing problems, disconnection from electricity and phone connections, and inability to secure necessary medical care”, as well as a range of adverse social and emotional impacts. This has served to increase the hardship of individuals and families who are already experiencing financial stress, placing significant pressure on informal care relations.

What this scholarship makes clear is that ‘light touch’ and disciplinary approaches to everyday welfare have done considerable damage to already fragile informal care relations (Pfau-Effinger 2005 ). As Joan Tronto ( 2017 , pp. 34–35) puts it,

The inadequacy of the neoliberal model of the self-mastered self can only be elided by the move that President Bush made: to locate individuals into a family where they are willing to make sacrifices. However, there is no magic intrinsic to families to provide adequate care; they require material, social and psychic resources to thrive. […] [A]s more care responsibilities are being thrown back on families, their capacity to cope with problems increasingly rests upon their prior market success. This is no way to provide adequate care in society. The interesting new neoliberal response – to call for ‘resiliency’, another personalised trait for coping with misfortune – is now widely investigated in the social sciences as a cure for these neoliberal-induced ills.

Present-day inflationary and cost-of-living pressures will only raise the stakes at the intersections between contracting economies, basic incomes, structural austerity, and willingness to care (Birnbaum 2012 ). The most vulnerable to these impacts, scholars warn, will be those with the least means, rights and/or assets—a fact that will undoubtedly create heightened care needs within already disadvantaged communities. The individualisation of responsibility through the weakening of welfare safety nets thus creates and perpetuates the conditions of harm that make (crisis-focussed) informal care necessary to begin with. Understood in this way, informal care and associated inequalities represent a problem for and with contemporary social policy and administration.

Spaces and places of care

Recent research in human geography makes several contributions that further illuminate different but critical dimensions to informal caring relations and associated inequalities. Among other important interventions, this work draws attention to the central role of space and place in the practice and politics of informal care (e.g. Bowlby 2012 ; Cox 2013 ; Lawson 2007 ; Milligan and Wiles 2010 ); it shows that the embodied and affective experience of care is fundamentally shaped by the physical spaces, institutional contexts, political landscapes, and relational and community settings in which care occurs (Power and Hall 2018 ). Forms of material organisation, city planning, and suburban and rural configurations, for example, enable, disable, or otherwise inflect care at the micro-level. Such spatialities of/to care are in turn shaped by and reflective of the broader social, political, and economic landscape. The turn towards place and space as fundamentally mediating care provides a critical addition to the tools outlined thus far focussing on political economy, critical affect studies, and social policy and administration.

Just as political economy and social policy scholars underline the role of financial resources (including income support payments and associated safety nets) in facilitating or undermining informal care (e.g. Fine 2012 ; Cantillon and Lynch 2017 ; Dowling 2021 ; Tronto 2017 ), so too do human geographers stress the way that physical spaces shape care relationships, including care inequalities. Scholars emphasising space and place have demonstrated, for example, that rapid urbanisation has changed the everyday realities of informal care by shaping civil society, norms of solidarity, access to green spaces, and formal and informal care infrastructures (Bowlby 2012 ). Where elderly people may have previously relied on nearby family members for support, the dispersal of families across states and continents means that increasing numbers of older people now lack nearby networks of informal care (Milligan and Liu 2015 ). Viewed through this lens, the inequalities of proximity thus come to the fore, with, for instance, many young parents now lacking physical access to parents and relatives who might otherwise have assisted with child raising (Bose 2013 ). Such ‘carescapes’ (Bowlby 2012 ) alter the context of care, pushing (some) people into formal care institutions such as nursing homes and childcare facilities, while placing care outside the reach of others. Equally, the rise of apartment living and the transience of apartment dwellers in countries like Australia (in part due to the geographic patterning of employment and affordable housing) is reshaping the experience of informal care within and beyond the home, particularly vis-à-vis parenting (see Kerr et al. 2018 , 2021 ). As Sophie Bowlby ( 2012 , p. 2106) summarises, “relationships are relations in space and place”; even minor spatial changes such as “the distances separating the dwellings of generations within a family or of the living environments of older and younger people” can subsequently have significant impacts on how relationships are practised. For some care scholars, the provision of appropriate (non-commodified) ‘space to care’ (Care Collective 2020 ) is therefore an essential element in the curation of more caring communities.

The impacts of spatiality on care are perhaps most evident in the geographical patterning of access to local social and healthcare services, secure employment, safe and affordable housing, and green spaces, among other infrastructures and resources (McEachan et al. 2018 ). In the context of increasingly marketised and privatised health and social care systems in many countries, services are often concentrated in wealthy urban areas where profit margins are greatest (Kessler 2003 ). Similarly, residents in some urban locations—particularly economically disadvantaged suburbs and areas with high levels of social housing—experience reduced access to health services (e.g. Malmgren et al. 1996 ; Rosenberg 2014 ). These economic and infrastructural shortfalls intersect with other inequalities to produce marked disparities in health outcomes and create additional care needs in some postcodes, all the while transferring the burden of care in these locales from state-funded services to informal carers. Loïc Wacquant’s ( 2008 ) concept of territorial stigmatisation adds further detail to this picture of geographically patterned inequality in access to care. Wacquant shows that the ‘taint’ of place is a defining feature of contemporary marginalisation. Indeed, he posits that stigma becomes attached to place, and is “arguably the single most protrusive feature of the lived experience of those trapped in these sulphurous zones” (2008, p. 169). Some institutions—from prisons to mental health hospitals—have similarly been identified as loci of stigma where residents are marked as other. This taint stays with the individual after their release from the institution, as they are denied access to societal markers of decency and self-sufficiency (including, for example, access to a stable home) and instead relegated to other stigmatised spaces such as homeless shelters and half-way houses (Keene et al. 2018 ). What we see here is that institutional spaces of care and/or coercion embody and reproduce social, cultural, political, and economic hierarchies. Stigma—including the sticky stigmatisation of (some) geographic places—functions as an instrument of control (Tyler and Slater 2018 ), naturalising (class and race) inequalities and patterning both the need for and the experience of informal (and, indeed, formal) care.

Ecologies of care and kinship

To date, the informal caring literature—much like the care literature more broadly—has been dominated by work on human–human relations. Indeed, even the broad definition of informal care with which we began this article was adapted from a longer definition that conceptualised care as “a species activity” (Fisher and Tronto 1990 , p. 40); that is, as “one of the features that makes people human” (Tronto 1998 , p. 16). As the care crisis intersects with larger ecological and environmental crises, a growing number of scholars are calling for care scholarship (as well as care practice) to move beyond the bounds of the human to centre ecological and multispecies relations, including inequalities and injustices therein (see, for example, Lynch 2022 , on veganism). Such work is often deeply informed by First Nations literatures and practices (e.g. Quinn et al. 2022 ). Decentring the human, these scholars insist, promises to provide a more panoramic view of the extensive (often unpaid) care work that occurs across societies and species; of the multi-directionality of care; and of the embeddedness of even human–human caring relations in broader ecologies and intergenerational knowledges. These interdependencies have been routinely emphasised within First Nations scholarship on care, as well as within scholarship from the Global South, but, until recently, have received significantly less emphasis in the broader care literature.

The healthy land-healthy people in First Nations-centred scholarship (Burgess et al. 2009 ) speaks to the critical principle of relationality beyond the human in care, and to the value of collectivities that are rarely fostered in modern societies. The dominating (colonial) concepts of ownership, extraction, and exploitation (of non-human animals, or land and waterways) have decentred the historic and enduring ways that multidimensional care between humans, animals, and ecologies is practiced within First Nations communities. Care, as an ecological concept, grounded in First Nations knowledges, becomes longer (stretching over time) and wider (extending to species, land and waterways). As Whitt et al. ( 2001 , p. 4) explain,

Indigenous responsibilities to and for the natural world are based on an understanding of the relatedness, or affiliation, of the human and non-human worlds, which is best understood in its primary – genealogical – context. Genealogies provide stories of origins. They tell a person, or a people, where and from whom they are descended. In this sense they bind through time, showing how ancestors and descendants course together through a continuous, unfolding history.

Such understandings of care and relatedness ask us to confront the consumption and waste of human cohabitation with other species, and to see our footprint on country. Moreover, thinking about informal caring relations in ancestral, ecological, and multispecies terms means recognising the porousness of the boundaries that divide person, ancestor, descendant, animal, country, ecology, and so on (Barla and Hubatschke 2017 ). From this viewpoint, care between living human persons can never be simply between these persons. Human relations of care exist within a broader genealogical and ecological context and are necessarily intertwined with the provision or withholding of care to/from others in this broader whole.

In her book Staying with the Trouble, feminist STS scholar Donna Haraway ( 2016 ) makes an analogous point about the interdependency of all life using the metaphor of the compost pile.

Critters are at stake in each other in every mixing and turning of the terran compost pile. We are compost, not posthuman; we inhabit the humusities, not the humanities. Philosophically and materially, I am a compostist, not a posthumanist. Critters – human and not – become-with each other, compose and decompose each other, in every scale and register of time and stuff in sympoietic tangling, in ecological evolutionary developmental earthly worlding and unworlding. (p. 97)

As Haraway ( 2016 , p. 100) sees it, no species acts alone—“not even our own arrogant one pretending to be good individuals in so-called modern Western scripts”. She thus argues for a radical recomposition of kin: a recognition of all species as ‘family’, and a parallel extension of care beyond the bounds of the human. Such a reframing promises to radically transform and expand how we think about informal care particularly, as informal care frequently occurs in the context of relational commitments to kith and kin.

For many scholars in the environmental humanities, the ethic of care that animates such calls represents a powerful counterpoint and challenge to the individualistic logics of late capitalism. As Stefanie Barca ( 2020 ) observes, economic reproduction depends not only the expropriation of (formal and informal) care work from women, colonised and racialised subjects, but also on the expropriation of the (unremunerated) reproduction undertaken by nature (see also Fraser 2022 ).

[I]f the nexus between women and non-human nature as co-producers of labour power has been socially constructed through capitalist relations of reproduction, then women’s environmental and reproductive struggles are to be seen as part of the general class struggle. For socialist ecofeminists, this requires disavowing the paradigm of modern economic growth, because the latter has subordinated both reproduction and ecology to production, considering them as means to capitalist accumulation. (Barca 2020 , p. 34)

Scholars in this tradition stress the importance of resisting “the master version of modernity by countering the subordination of life to social imperatives of production/accumulation” (Barca 2020 , p. 39). Central to this project is “seeing and valuing the forces of reproduction” or—to both echo and expand Fisher and Tronto’s ( 1990 ) species-centric definition of care—to make visible the constitutive role the more-than-human plays in ‘maintaining’ and ‘repairing’ our world. A more expansive conceptualisation of (informal) care ensues.

The story of care, as we weave across these fields and foci, becomes increasingly unwieldy. Care is revealed as multivalent in character—reaching across scales and generations, involving evolving (urban) materialities, and having a distinctly more-than-human feel. When we examine informal care in particular, what emerges is a set of enduring and developing concerns, articulated through often disparate but collectively critical scholarships centred on political economy, affect, policy, space, and ecologies. Despite their often-separate ‘treatment’, these spheres of concern swirl around each other in everyday life, choreographing interpersonal and human–ecological relations. They mediate life in all its forms, rippling unevenly across (certain) bodies, times, communities, and spaces in ways that frequently (re)produce inequality.

Together, the literatures discussed in this article furnish a nuanced conceptualisation of informal care that underlines its uneven and often extractive contours. These literatures reveal informal care as a critical—but frequently exploited and undervalued—pillar of our financialised worlds. As an affective relation and resource that is not distributed evenly in societies. As a ‘private’ (and, increasingly, privatised) activity that is fundamentally dependent on (evaporating) public infrastructures. As a spatial practice that is necessarily shaped by our physical environments and inequalities therein. And a more-than-human relation that spans species, bodies, and generations in ways that make ecological degradation part of this broader scene of troubled care.

Informal care, then, is best viewed as an entangled, temporal, material, multispecies emergence, which requires a sophisticated array of concepts to capture its everyday complexity and avoid reductionism (i.e. to the mere social, to the non-material, to the only-human, to the present, and so on). The conceptual tools we have presented in this article are highly valuable for the window they offer into this complexity and issues of inequality therein. They are also vital for capturing the multidimensional nature of the various and evolving conditions that work against the desire and willingness to care, undermining the vitality of our interconnectedness and, by extension, the future of our social and planetary worlds.

We note that while many of these theories pertain to or could be applied in the context of diverse spheres of care, our focus, in this article, is on informal care specifically—particularly informal care as carried out in the Global North in the context of advanced capitalism. For critical discussions of formal and informal care across scales and countries, see, for example, Williams ( 2018 ) and Aulenbacher et al. ( 2018a , b ).

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Peterie, M., Broom, A. Conceptualising care: critical perspectives on informal care and inequality. Soc Theory Health 22 , 53–70 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41285-023-00200-3

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Your Undergraduate Dissertation in Health and Social Care

• Nicholas Walliman - Oxford Brookes University, UK
• Jane Appleton
• Description

Your Undergraduate Dissertation in Health and Social Care provides a practical step-by-step guide to both the theoretical and practical aspects of the process of doing an undergraduate dissertation, equipping the reader with all the skills necessary to plan, conduct and write up a research project successfully.

This is a revised edition of Nicholas Walliman's best-selling Your Undergraduate Dissertation , which has been specially tailored to the needs of those studying health, social care and related subjects. All the central topics are covered, with comprehensive information and guidance on crucial issues such as ethics, research governance and appraising the quality of the evidence. Relevant 'real life' examples are also included, drawn from a wide range of settings.

This guide offers a genuinely accessible and supportive source of advice that will be welcomed by undergraduates working towards their final year dissertation in health and social care.

See what’s new to this edition by selecting the Features tab on this page. Should you need additional information or have questions regarding the HEOA information provided for this title, including what is new to this edition, please email [email protected] . Please include your name, contact information, and the name of the title for which you would like more information. For information on the HEOA, please go to http://ed.gov/policy/highered/leg/hea08/index.html .

For assistance with your order: Please email us at [email protected] or connect with your SAGE representative.

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Supplements

The text is difficult to read and there are far more engaging books on this subject. Really not applicable to widening participation students.

I will be recommending this book for health care degree learners. The book is set out well and has a variety of information that is useful not only when preparing for dissertation in both health care and social work. Some sections go beyond dissertation and thus also can be an invaluable reference book when in professional practice.

this text is recommended for all Undergraduate students about to embark on their major project

very helpful book easy to navigate.

This the perfect text for our public health department's junior year writing course.

This book was sent during the summer when I was unable to review it in enough depth. However I shall be suggesting it as a supplemental text

This book will be recommended to our students. It contains some invaluable chapters that students will find useful.

This is a useful text which contains valuable information for all undergraduate students completing their dissertaion. I have given it a personal recomendation to a number of students who have learning differences as I feel it will benefit them particualrly.

In addition to midwifery students, I will also be recomending this text to nursing, radipgraphy and social work students I am in contact with during Interprofessional learning modules.

A book I have recommended to several students enbarking on writing their dissertation. No feedback as yet as to whether sudents have found it useful.

Presented in a question and answer ‘manual’ style text this book is a must have for undergraduates wishing to get a successful grasp on the complex field of research. It offers a clear introduction to various types, approaches and methods used and accepted within the discipline of Health and Social Care. Te title of the book does not do the text justice - it would be advisable to obtain this user friendly read before approaching any written paper/essay involving research, and can then be referred to during extended projects as a guide to focus and keep on track!! With plenty of suggested further reading this book makes a great companion on an otherwise, LONELY journey.

Preview this book

Sample materials & chapters.

Introduction

Chapter One

For instructors

Select a purchasing option, related products.

This title is also available on SAGE Knowledge , the ultimate social sciences online library. If your library doesn’t have access, ask your librarian to start a trial .

Southern Ute Social Services Promotes Foster Care Month

Hello Everyone,

❤ May is Foster Care Month! ❤

In May, we recognize foster families for the teamwork they do with social services agencies and courts across the country. We express our appreciation for the loving home, and care they provide to children who have been separated from their parents for safety reasons. On that same note, we are recruiting Indigenous foster families who can provide a loving home for children in need, in their own community. Southern Ute Division of Social Services is looking for families who have extra space in their home, time in their lives, and love in their hearts to step up for this challenging, yet, rewarding role. Call me or stop by the Mouache Capote Building (116 Capote Drive, Ignacio, CO) for more information.

😊 HAPPY FOSTER CARE MONTH! 😊

Kellie Yazzie

Foster Care Coordinator

Division of Social Services

Southern Ute Tribe

Phone: 970.563.2337

Almost one in three councils no longer confident they can provide basic adult social care

• Social care
• local councils
• Tuesday 14 May 2024 at 8:52pm

Anushka Asthana

Deputy Political Editor

Councils are losing confidence in their ability to provide good social care, according to data shared exclusively with ITV News. Deputy Political Editor Anushka Asthana reports.

A deep dive into the crisis engulfing adult social care has revealed almost a third of councils are no longer confident they can even meet their basic legal duties towards elderly and vulnerable residents next year.

Research from the Local Government Association (LGA), shared exclusively with ITV News, lays bare the scale of fear felt by those leading this work in local authorities across England.

A survey with dozens of adult social care leads suggests just 8% are very confident about meeting their statutory duties for 2025/26 - down from 27% when looking ahead towards this year, 2024/25.

That means many people in desperate need of care support - are failing to get it - with visits either being cancelled or shortened over many years.

The fears about meeting the legal requirements come despite eight out of 10 councils forecasting having to cut spending on other community services such as parks, libraries and leisure centres to try to protect funding.

“We are at a critical point, for people who draw on care, councils and the sector,” said Cllr David Fothergill - the LGA’s social care lead.

The Conservative lead on Somerset Council said the situation “simply isn’t good enough” and argued adult social care needed urgent attention.

“This must be top of the in-tray for any incoming government.”

89-year-old David Gower - who lives in council-run sheltered accommodation in Luton - says the decline in support has been devastating, plummeting straight down "like the cliffs of Dover".

He used to get a visit to help him shower three times a week - but now only gets that help once a week. Being taken out to the day room to socialise has reduced from two or three times a week to once a month "if I'm lucky".

He warns that the reduction in support is putting pressure on health services - as it makes it more likely he will decline to a level that requires NHS intervention.

Mr Gower, who praised the work of Age UK, said he wants politicians to work cross-party on this.

"We're not dealing with commodity, we're not dealing with a service, we're dealing with life - and life is not cheap," he says.

Luton Council says it has faced reduced funding but is committed to providing quality care and will meet David to review his needs, adding: "We are very sorry to hear that he is dissatisfied with our service and we will do all we can to remedy this."

Recruiting and retaining care workers is another huge challenge.

' You want to spend more time with people, but you just can't': Julie Sansom told ITV News the lack of resources has made it 'stressful' to give people even a basic level of care

Julie Sansom, a domiciliary care worker in Nottingham, has joined the Homecare Workers' Group for support as pressures mount with zero hour contracts, no sick pay and increasingly vulnerable clients.

"As well as giving medication, using equipment, you're also like a social worker and a psychiatrist at times," says Ms Sansom, who sees on average ten clients per shift.

"They can get very upset and very emotional and it would be nice to be able to spend time with that person - but you just can't because you have, however long it is that slot, and then you've got to go to the next one."

The LGA's work is being done to mark 10 years since the Care Act received royal assent - which was designed to pull together a patchwork of legislation since 1948 into one single Act that all councils have to comply with.

Under the legislation, councils have a legal duty- amongst others, to ensure that their residents have access to a wide range of high-quality and appropriate services that would prevent, reduce or delay the need for care and support.

In the report - ten years on - the LGA made clear councillors believe the legislation is still correct to codify a set of principles - but makes clear that there is a strong feeling that the country is collectively falling short in its support for some of it’s most vulnerable citizens.

As well as the funding squeeze - they point to huge pressures around recruiting and retaining staff - and call for urgent financial help.

Despite being Conservative, Fothergill argued that the promises of that legislation had not been fulfilled.

“The Care Act was a beacon of hope for those needing care and support but this hope has faded.

"A decade on, people are still facing long waiting times for assessments and support and not getting the full care and support they need."

Have you heard our new podcast Talking Politics? Every week Tom, Robert and Anushka dig into the biggest issues dominating the political agenda…

Suburbanization Problems in the USSR : the Case of Moscow

• Référence bibliographique

Gornostayeva Galina A. Suburbanization Problems in the USSR : the Case of Moscow . In: Espace, populations, sociétés , 1991-2. Les franges périurbaines Peri-urban fringes. pp. 349-357.

DOI : https://doi.org/10.3406/espos.1991.1474

www.persee.fr/doc/espos_0755-7809_1991_num_9_2_1474

• RIS (ProCite, Endnote, ...)

Résumé (fre)

La suburbanisation n'existe pas en URSS au sens des phénomènes décrits dans les villes occidentales. Cependant on observe certains transferts limités d'activités industrielles exigeantes en espace ou polluantes, voire même de centres de recherches, vers les zones suburbaines ou des villes-satellites. Mais ces déconcentrations répondent à une logique de planification administrative. En outre, les Moscovites hésitent à aller habiter dans ces centres d'emploi, de crainte de perdre les privilèges liés à l'autorisation d'habiter Moscou (la propiska) et du fait des communications insuffisantes avec la capitale. Le taux de croissance de la population moscovite reste supérieur à celui du reste de l'oblast. Par contre le développement de datchas de seconde résidence est très important dans l'oblast de Moscou, en particulier aux alentours des stations de chemin de fer. L'abolition du système de propiska pourrait transformer les datchas les plus proches de Moscou en résidences principales.

Résumé (eng)

The suburbanisation does not exist as such in the USSR with the meaning one has of the phenomena in Western cities. Though one may notice some limited transfers of industrial activities demanding a lot of space or polluting ones, even research centres, towards the suburban areas or satellite-towns. But these déconcentrations correspond to an administrative planification logics. Moreover the Muscovites hesitate before going and living in these employment centres, because they are afraid of loosing the privileges linked with the authorisation to live in Moscow (the propiska) and because of insufficient communications with the capital. The growth rate of the Muscovite population remains higher than this of the remainder of the oblast. To the contrary developing of datchas for second residences is very high in the Moscow oblast, especially in the vicinity of a railway station. The abolishment of the «propiska» system might transform the datchas nearer to Moscow into main residences.

• Economic structure [link]
• Suburbanization of activities [link]
• Suburbanization of population [link]
• Conclusions [link]
• Literature [link]

Liste des illustrations

• Table 1. Employment structure, % [link]
• Table 2. Annual rate of population increase, % [link]
• Fig. 1. Spatial distribution of country-cottages and gardening associations in the Moscow region [link]

Texte intégral

Galina A. GORNOSTAYEVA

Moscow University

Suburbanization Problems

in the USSR :

the Case of Moscow

Suburbanization processes typical to cities in Western Europe, the USA and other countries are not observed in the USSR or they are distorted to such an extent that they may not be compared with existing standards. This states the question how Soviet cities-succeeded in escaping this stage of urban development. In order to answer this question, we should first summarize the main aspects of Western suburbanization.

Firstly, it is well known that the urbanization processes are linked to structural changes in the economy. Thus the transition from the stage of concentration to this of suburbanization is associated with industrialization, and the transition to the third stage - déconcentration - is related with the rapid growth of employment in the non-industrial sphere. Secondly, a suburbanization of economic activities can be distinguished. It applies in the first place to the building and iron- working industry, transports, engineering and chemical works. These are polluting and requiring extensive areas. This suburbanization of industry is caused by the following factors: rising demand for land from firms ; worsening of transport

tions in the inner cities ; demand for lower land costs and taxation levels in suburbs ; rapid growth of road transports; state policies regulating the growth of large cities ; migration of the labour force to the suburban zones. Scientific and educational activities are also transferred from the centre to the suburbs.

The third important aspect of suburbanization applies to the population. In the suburbs two opposite flows of population meet ; one is centripetal, coming from non- metropolitan regions, the other is centrifugal, coming from the central city. The reasons for the migration to the suburbs are as follows : declining living standards in large cities (overcrowding, slow housing renewal, environmental problems, etc.); growth of motorization of the population, development of communications (telephone, telex, fax, computer) ; intensifying decentralization of working places ; lower land prices in the suburbs ; state support for the intensification of real estate development in the suburbs. The above-mentioned factors and reasons for suburbanization are altered in the Soviet cities. Let us explore them, by taking for example the largest one - Moscow.

Economic structure

The employment structure in the USSR reveals sharp differences from those in developed urbanized countries. The USSR is characterized by a high share of employment in agriculture, industry, construction and a low share in the non-industrial sphere (tab. 1).

A correlation analysis of the percentage of urban population and employment in the different spheres of economic activity reveals that the share of urban population in the USSR is higher than in countries with the same percentage of persons employed in agriculture.

TABLE 1. EMPLOYMENT STRUCTURE,

Source: personal calculations.

The urbanization processes in the Moscow Capital Region (MCR) are more intensive than in other regions of the USSR. Structural changes are more obvious here : the share of employment in the non-industrial sphere increases more substantially and the percentage of persons employed in industry and agriculture is lower than in the whole country. However the MCR cannot therefore be compared with a metropolitan region in a Western country. Although Moscow is the most advanced agglomeration in the USSR, it lags is far behind the major world cities in terms of development and it is at the very start of the post- industrial stage of its structural and urban transformation.

The structural «anomaly» of the USSR as a whole and of the MCR in particular is explained by the enforced process of industrialization (starting from the thirties) at the expense of the peasantry (thus, there is not only a booming industrial employment in cities, but also worsening living and working conditions in villages and forced collectivization having triggered off the massive rural emigration). As a result, the share of urban population in the USSR is higher than expected, based on changes in the economic structure. While urbanization in the developed countries was due, among

other causes, to an increasing labour efficiency in agriculture, this remained quite low in the USSR. Therefore the employment share in agriculture is overstated in comparison with countries with a similar percentage of urban population, and even this considerable part of the labour force is unable to feed the whole population of the country.

The share of agricultural employment in the mcr increased from 7,4 % to 7,6 °7o between 1980 and 1985 (as a result of Moscow attractiveness and the better living standards in its surrounding villages), whereas it continued to decline in other parts of the Central region. The population growth in villages adjacent to Moscow is especially intensive, though labour efficiency in localities near Moscow is higher than in the other oblasts. In spite of this, Moscow oblast provides only 61 % of milk, 34 °/o of potatoes, 45 % of vegetables and 23 % of meat needed by the population in Moscow city and oblast (Argumen- ty i facty, 1988, N50, p. 3). The structural anomaly is not only related to processes in agricultural sphere but also in industrial sector. As a result of the low economic mobility of socialist firms and of the absence of market relations, the industrial development was extensive,

without significant increases of the labour

productivity.

Thus the employment transfer from the

agricultural to the industrial sector, their

extensive development and their low labour

productivity are intrinsically related with the political definition of productiorfrela- tions and course of structural economic transformation.

Suburbanization of activities

Moscow and Moscow oblast show divergent economic structures and changes (tab. 1). In Moscow the employment share in the non-industrial sphere in Moscow is growing more rapidly, whereas the share of industrial employment is decreasing. In Moscow oblast the part of transport and communication infrastructure, retail trade, administration, housing (presently less developed than in Moscow) is increasing. Some stages in the transformation of activities in the mcr's settlements may be pointed out here. The stage of industrialization and reconstruction after World War II is characterized by the swift industrial development and the active restructuration of the Moscow and Moscow oblast economy. New industries have been built (motor-car and aircraft assembly, machine-tool industry, organic synthesis, etc.), around Moscow research and production potential. Nevertheless, this restructuration is extensive, since traditional industries don't curtail production. It favours the heavy concentration of modern functions in Moscow. There is no transfer of firms outside Moscow. Suburbanization of industrial activities did not occur because of the state owning the means of production and of thé socialist form of production relations. When research and technological progress are slowing down, these firms become inefficient and spatially immobile. The period 1956-1970 is marked by an intensive development of the region scientific sphere and by the rise of « satellite » urban policy. The new centres were specialized in modern branches of machinery and research-engineering activities and were undoubtedly very attractive for the population. Therefore towns like Dubna were growing rapidly. While the aim was to redirect part of Moscow population

growth, they display a quite specific relation with the capital. For instance, Muscovites working in Pushchino cannot reach their job every day because they lack transport facilities. Nevertheless, they don't wish to move and register their passports in the city in which they actually work, since they would have to give up their Moscow registration and then lose all Moscow privileges (see further). These new centres are isolated from information sources in Moscow. Poor telephone communications, lack of computers and telex systems hamper contacts and teamwork with colleagues in the city. It seems that material resources for experimental work in research centres are not sufficient to compensate for lack of information and communications. At the same time, poor transport links with Moscow and the other towns of Moscow oblast isolate the scientists from the higher standard of culture in the centre and from a well developed social infrastructure. An original home-work relation can be observed in Dubna: the Muscovites get the second registration of passports and live there in hostel apartments during 4 or 5 working days, during the weekends they go back to Moscow, where their families are living. The change of functions in Moscow oblast towns is still going on. Inside the towns of the first circle adjacent to Moscow, the share of employment in the non-industrial sectors and transport is growing. Inside the towns of the second circle (suburban zone) these changes lead to an increasing potential of non-industrial, industrial and construction functions. Finally, in the outlying parts of the region the further grovth of construction and industrial functions is observed and the organization potential is intensifying in some towns. The mcr towns display a crawling concen-

tration of the regional most important functions and their extension outside the boundaries of Moscow to the towns of the suburban zone. But the déconcentration of functions in the mcr is not only of natural- economic character. It also results from the state urban policy. Déconcentration is not related to the search for more advantageous sites for firms and institutions as regards to economic or social relations (the availability of cheaper labour force or more comfortable living conditions, etc.), nor is it sustained by the expansion of transport and communication facilities. Thus, this déconcentration is independent from curtailment of any function in central Moscow, whose potential is still growing, and it is also completely inadequate regarding the continuing concentration of population (see below). All this, together with the slow economic and territorial mobility of firms, is an obstacle to the economic restructuration of the region, and to the reorientation of Moscow and its suburbs to non-industrial activities and to progressive scientific and informational work. The mass labour-consuming functions still remain in Moscow and its suburbs, but they are inevitably cut off from modern types of activities.

The idea of alleviating Moscow's development appeared from the very beginning of its rapid growth, since the excessive concentration of population and employment led (as in the other major world cities) to environmental discomfort, worsening of transport, strip-holding of land and other congestion signs. In market economies, the firms react to alterations of economic or social conditions by their mobility: some

of them close, other relocate in more convenient places. In the USSR, the problem of firm transfer (unhealthy or unprofitable firms) becomes unsolvable because of the special type of production relations. Economic and territorial passivity of firms is apparent in the difficulties of erecting industrial buildings and dismantling machinery and equipment, in the low turnover of the means of production. The same problem exist regarding the labour force. Firms transferred to the suburban towns of Moscow oblast are encountering great difficulties in recruiting staff in sufficient numbers and of required skill. The local labour force is rather weak, while the Moscow workers wouldn't leave the capital to follow their firm, because they are afraid of being deprived of passport registration in Moscow. From the social point of view, giving up a Moscow registration is more significant to people than losing their job. The processes going on in the mcr are therefore not quite comparable with those in the Western world. The market economy is more «lively» and replacement of functions has the character of territorial waves. Some functions disappear while new ones emerge. In the mcr, the waves are replaced by stratification. New functions do not replace the old ones, but joining them. At the same time, this process of relative déconcentration of functions overpass the process of stable concentration of population. In the mcr, the modern branches are gravitated closely to Moscow, where skilled workers are retained by their registration advantages. Suburban towns have to be satisfied with commuters or specialists from the outlying regions of the USSR.

Suburbanization of population

The urbanization structure of the region is characterized by the predominance of its main centre - Moscow. The share of the capital in the total Moscow oblast population was as follows: in 1929 - 44,3 Vo, in 1939 - 51,6 %, in 1959 - 54,9 %, in 1979 -54,5 Vo, in 1985 - 57,3 % (Moscow Capital Region, p. 137.). Within the agglomeration, the share of Moscow is still higher, in 1959 it was 75,5 % and in 1985

- 67,3 % (ibid., p. 141), whereas in the highly developed capital regions of the world the agglomeration counts one half or less of the total population and of the economic potential, the second half being concentrated in the suburbs (Gritsay, p. 71). Moreover, the growth rate of Moscow population is higher than that of Moscow oblast (tab . 2).

TABLE 2. ANNUAL RATE OF POPULATION INCREASE,

Migrations are of great importance to the mcr. The internal migration of rural population to the cities is rather substantial, and the immigration flow from the rest of the USSR is not compensated by the decrease of rural population in the mcr. The nearer a town to Moscow, the larger the migration share in its total population increase.

The dynamics of population in the mcr has a specific character. In agglomerations of the developed countries the principle of the «broken glass» summarizes the suburbanization process. When, for some reasons, the centre loses its attractiveness the urban population moves to suburbs in search of higher living standard. In Moscow agglomeration the principle of the «overfilled glass» is operating. People wanting to live in Moscow cannot enter the city and are forced to settle near it. In Moscow immigration undoubtedly prevails over emigration, confirming the extreme territorial differentiation in conditions, level and way of life. As a rule, commuting is oriented from suburbs to Moscow (600 thousand persons come to Moscow and only 200 thousand leave it), but it accounts only for 12-15 % cf the total employment in Moscow's economy. Moreover, these commuters are not Muscovites but potential new inhabitants of the capital (striving for passport registration and domicile in Moscow).

Moscow became the most attractive place for living and an intensive flow of ruined rural residents as well as residents from other regions of the country were rushing -to Moscow. These processes were generated not only by the inception of the country structural economic transformation,

but also by the policy of special privileges for Moscow. These privileges came into being after the establishment of a centralized distribution system. Such a system involves the assignment of a priority level of foodstuffs and manufactured goods to each territory. Moscow was awarded the highest priority level. From the very beginning, better living standards and higher income for certain population categories were established there. In the thirties the artificial differentiation in living standards was confirmed by imposing restrictions to passport registration in the capital, and also by the division of administrative bodies into Moscow and Moscow oblast authorities. In the period 1925-30 dozens of new large firms were located in Moscow, but housing was insufficient at that time. Therefore, a great number of migrants from every corner of the country came to get a job in Moscow and settled in cottages in the nearby countryside. Soon, these settlements in the nearby countryside. Soon, these settlements turned into urban ones. For example, towns like Mytishchi and Luberstsy developed rapidly, and even Muscovites moved there when the railways were electrified. This was clearly the outset of a suburbanization process, but it stopped as soon as the restrictions on passport registration in Moscow were imposed and the social barrier between Moscow and Moscow oblast was established. In the period 1930-40, new industrial developments were banned from Moscow and firms drawn towards the city were located on the outskirts thus causing a rapid growth of the old and new towns. Although the development of cottages as second residence near Moscow started even before the revolution, since the en-

vironmental degradation of Moscow was practically completed at that time, they became the main resorts of those years. They had flourished in the districts with privileged natural conditions and convenient transport services (not further than 2 km from a railway station). In the period 1930-40, this sprawl of leisure housing carried on - cottage settlements expanded into an entire belt of scattered one- storeyed buildings. But at the same time, urban multi-storeyed housing also increased and after World War II these multi- storeyed buildings were found in the cottage settlements of the leisure zone. In the period 1950-60 a network of gardening associations was established. In those

years the most convenient land near Moscow had already been built on. The gardening plots allotted to the Muscovites were located in the remote parts of the mcr, outside the suburban zone, and very frequently they were on improper territories. Because of their remoteness, the difficulties in cultivation and building, the lack of infrastructure, these plots cannot become effective leisure resorts. More frequently Muscovites use them for fruit and vegetable growing.

The desire of the Muscovites for having a second residence in the suburbs can be interpreted as an unfulfilled suburbanization tendency. This desire has the same, mainly environmental, causes as suburbaniza-

tion in Western countries. The cottages within the reach of Moscow's traffic and having access to appropriate infrastructure and amenities, might become the principal residence of Muscovites if passport registration is abolished. The restrictions of passport registration in Moscow fixed in the thirties were devised as an administrative solution against the effects of Moscow's unique attractiveness and not as a means of eliminating the attractiveness itself. For this reason, Moscow became even more attractive, like a forbidden fruit. The consequences were both the concentration of the upper strata of society in the city and the extensive development of industry, resulting in a growing shortage of unskilled labour.

The shortage of regular workers in Moscow is sometimes explained by the increasing number of working places. An adequate planning of the «limiters» (1) system is then put forward as the solution for controlling the growth of Moscow is found in (Glushkova, 1988, p. 43). To be frank, about twenty industrial units and more than one hundred scientific institutions were already created in the seventies alone, in spite of the industrial building ban in Moscow, only a few firms moved outside the city in return. New industrial units easily find staff, since they offer new machinery, relatively good working conditions and higher wages. New scientific and administrative institutions are in a similar position. But the situation is totally different in the old industrial units, with rundown equipment and a high level of manual tasks. Those units suffer from a staff shortage. Moreover, as in any other city, there is a social mobility in Moscow, in most cases improving - from manual up to mental, from unskilled up to highly skilled work. Furthermore, the prestige of a higher education (university) is overestimated in Moscow, whereas the prestige of the manual professions has declined as a result of the stagnation of reinvestments in industry, the high share of manual labour (40 %), and also favouritism and

crowding in the administrative staffs. The attractiveness of an upper class position is therefore overestimated, and social mobility activated. Since Moscow cannot admit free «immigrants» the lower strata of the social structure are vacant and there appears a shortage of unskilled labour force. The lower strata of the social structure were filled in with « limiters ». Available employment in Moscow was not the cause of an organized immigration flow, but represented the only possible way to register the passport there. Roughly half of these people drawn into Moscow's economy left their jobs. «Limiters» get the right to register their passports in Moscow and take up their residence in new houses when their contract expires. They usually quit their job as soon as possible in search of better working conditions (Glushkova, 1988, p. 42). The nature of unskilled work in Moscow and the associated working conditions are so unattractive that it is nearly impossible to find Muscovites willing to perform them.

The institution of passport registration raised many problems. Thus the « limiters » are recruited in social groups not needing most of the advantages of a large city, their psychology and value system differ sharply from native Muscovites. The direct environment of the hostels where «limiters » live, has a pronounced criminal character. Fictitious marriage in order to register the passport in Moscow has become a widespread practice.

Moscow's environmental problems can hardly be solved as long as passport registration exists. The population is literally locked up within the city boundaries. Notwithstanding the environmental stresses, the Moscow privileges prevent the Muscovites from leaving the city. The urban districts not saturated with harmful industrial units are the most prestigious. The social and economic causes of Moscow's extensive growth reveal that its problems are a reflection of the ones facing the USSR. The concentration of economic, social and management functions in Mos-

cow in Soviet times materializes the strong centralism of the particraty and weighs down on the city's development. Low labour efficiency in agriculture and sheer desolation of villages on the one hand, rapid but extensive industrialisation together with forced increasing social attraction of Moscow, confirmed by the restrictions on passport registration, on the other hand, were the key factors of the mcr's polarization during decades. Together with objective factors found in other large cities of the world, subjective factors related to the Soviet political and economic system influence Moscow's growth.

The objective factors are as follows: the diversity of employment in the capital, the emergence of new types of occupations, the concentration of high-skilled and creative labour, the higher living standards, the large educational and cultural opportunities.

The subjective factors are the higher supply level of foodstuff and manufactured goods different than in other regions (the existence of meat-rationing system in many regions of the country and its absence in Moscow establishes a significant threshold not only in terms of supply but also in the outlook of the population); the lack of communications and individual motorized transport (in the rsfsr one counts 47 cars per 1000 urban inhabitants against 560 in the USA) (Argumenty i facty, 1988, N47, p. 2); the craving for joining the upper social classes and for accessing neighbourhoods with a high quality of life; unjustified promotion of upward social mobility releasing «the ground floors» of Moscow's economy; continued growth of employment due to the extensive economic development and the low economic and territorial mobility of firms. Today, the hierarchy of priorities for selecting a residence within the mcr and the whole country is as follows. Food supply comes first. The supply of manufactured

goods, the opportunities to obtain better and larger living quarters and to accede to a prestigious employment with a wage increase, social promotion, well developed consumer services come next. And only at the end of the scale appears the opportunity to fulfil cultural needs and education. Thus, there is a process of «pseudo- urbanization» characteristic of the Soviet economic and social system, superimposed on the process of «natural» urbanization. By natural urbanization we mean the process related to economic development and to the natural difference between rural and urban ways of life. The specificity, the structural changes and the hierarchy of city functions shape the migration flows conditioned by natural urbanization. «Pseudo-urbanization» points to «the scum» of the process, that may complete the economic and socially conditioned urbanization. The «pseudo-urbanization» is generated by a disproportionate development of the country's economic structure (hypertrophie share of industry; economic and political reforms have triggered off a massive flow of the peasantry towards the cities, related not with the rising but with the lowering of labour efficiency in agriculture, with impoverishment of the countryside and hence with the urge towards the centres of relative well-being), and by the territorial inequalities in standards of living, artificially created and maintained by the institution of passports and registration.

The suburbanization of population cannot be observed in the MCR. The centripetal tendencies mentioned above resulted in rapid growth of Moscow and its suburbs, as well as in some stagnation of its periphery. Thus Moscow agglomeration is now in the first stage of development, the stage of «crawling» concentration where centrifugal forces are very weak. This situation will last as long as the barrier in terms of standards of living exists between Moscow and Moscow oblast.

Conclusions

This study has reaffirmed the general lack of suburbanization in the Soviet cities. Some signs of suburbanization like the

transfer of some activities from Moscow to the suburbs, the concentration of population in towns and villages near the central

city and commuting, differ significantly pie and firms will emancipate, only if the from the Western cities. The process of ur- existing political and economic system in banization will take its normal course, peo- the USSR is dismantled.

Argumenty i facty, 1988, N47, p. 2 Argumenty i facty, 1988, N50, p. 3

GLUSHKOVA V.G. Questions of Interrelated Settlement in Moscow and the Moscow Region, Problems of Geography, vol. 131, Moscow, 1988, pp. 40-56.

GRITSAY O.V. Western Europe : Regional Contrasts at the New Stage of Scientific-Technological Progress, Moscow, 1988, 148 p.

Moscow in Figures. 1980, Moscow, 1981, 220 p. Moscow in Figures. 1985, Moscow, 1986, 240 p.

National Economy of Moscow Oblast. 1981-1985, Moscow, 1986, 271 p.

National Economy of the ussr. 1985, Moscow, 1986, 421 p. Yearbook of Labour Statistics. 1987, Geneva, 1987, 960 p.

Moscow Capital Region: Territorial Structure and Natural Environment, Moscow, 1988, 321 p.

(1) Limiters are unskilled workers, hired in an organised way by Moscow firms; after working there for several years of working they get the right to register

their passports and to take up their residence in Moscow.

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Building more child care spaces for families in Newfoundland and Labrador

From: Employment and Social Development Canada

News release

Every child deserves the best start in life. But for young families, including Millennial and Gen Z parents, the costs of child care can add up to a second rent or mortgage payment. This makes it harder to start and support a family, and as a result, parents—especially moms—often face impossible choices between their careers and child care fees.

May 15, 2024     St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador     Employment and Social Development Canada Every child deserves the best start in life. But for young families, including Millennial and Gen Z parents, the costs of child care can add up to a second rent or mortgage payment. This makes it harder to start and support a family, and as a result, parents—especially moms—often face impossible choices between their careers and child care fees. Fairness for every generation means ensuring parents, especially moms, do not have to choose between a career and starting a family. The Government is taking action to make life cost less for young families and to build a Canada where every generation can get ahead. Already, all provinces and territories are offering or are on track to offer $10-a-day regulated child care. This progress, made possible by nearly $40 billion in federal support since 2016, including the transformative investment of nearly $30 billion in Budget 2021, is making life more affordable for young families. Women’s labour force participation is now at a record high of 85.7%, meaning more families are bringing home more income and contributing to Canada’s economic growth, while saving thousands of dollars on child care every year. But more families need access to affordable child care. That’s why, today in St. John’s, the Honourable Jenna Sudds, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, the Honourable Seamus O’Regan Jr., Minister of Labour and Seniors, and the Honourable Gudie Hutchings, Minister of Rural Economic Development, joined the Honourable Krista Lynn Howell, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Minister of Education, to announce $13.7 million over four years, including approximately $9.8 million through 2025-2026, to help build more inclusive child care spaces across the province through the Government of Canada’s $625 million Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund. This investment will help Newfoundland and Labrador reach the shared goal of building 5,895 new child care spaces by 2026. Through this Fund, all provinces and territories will be able to make further investments in child care , so more families can save up to $14,300 on child care every year, per child. These investments will aim to support families in rural and remote communities, as well as families in communities that face barriers to access, such as racialized groups, Indigenous Peoples, newcomers, official language minority communities, and children, parents and employees with disabilities. Funding may also be used to support infrastructure to provide care during non-standard hours. Across the country, over 750,000 kids are already benefiting from affordable, high-quality child care, with some families saving up to $14,300 per child, per year. Alongside provinces and territories, the Government of Canada has also announced over 100,000 new spaces, well on the way to reaching the goal of creating 250,000 new spaces by March 2026. Investing in affordable child care is about helping more families save thousands of dollars on child care and ensuring that every child has the best start in life. The measures highlighted above complement what the Government of Canada is doing in Budget 2024 to build a fairer Canada for every generation. The Government is building more homes, strengthening public health care, making life cost less, and growing the economy in a way that is shared by all—to make sure every generation has a fair chance at building a good middle-class life.

“Young families who don’t yet have access to affordable child care spaces are paying as much as a second rent or mortgage payment for unregulated child care. This is unfair to today’s generation of parents, especially Millennial and Gen Z parents, who need and deserve the relief of $10-a-day child care. We are working with provinces and territories to build more spaces across the country, so that more families can access affordable child care and save thousands of dollars every year.” – The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance 

“Every family should have access to high-quality, inclusive child care. More child care spaces mean more high-quality spots for kids, and more relief for parents as they access affordable child care. The Government of Canada remains committed to working with Newfoundland and Labrador so children in Canada have the best possible start in life. The Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund will help child care providers across the province so they can continue to provide access to high-quality, affordable, flexible and inclusive early learning and child care to underserved communities.” – The Honourable Jenna Sudds, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development

“We look after each other around here. More child care spaces means more support for young families. And that’s good for us all.” – The Honourable Seamus O’Regan Jr., Minister of Labour and Seniors

“Whether parents work in an office or on a shop floor, in Labrador City, St. Anthony, or St. John’s, everyone deserves access to reliable child care. With this continued investment today, we are helping Newfoundland and Labrador build more daycare spaces so families have child care they can rely on, no matter where they live.” – The Honourable Gudie Hutchings, Minister of Rural Economic Development

“Newfoundland and Labrador has made child care more affordable for families throughout the province. With over 9,100 early learning and child care spaces operating at $10-a-day or less and an additional 2,200 spaces in development, there is no doubt that momentum is building to ensure that all families in the province have access to the early learning and child care that they need. The Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund is a welcome addition to further enhance the resources and supports available to child care providers as they grow their services.” – The Honourable Krista Lynn Howell, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Minister of Education

Quick facts

As part of Budget 2021, the Government of Canada made a transformative investment of more than $27 billion over five years to build a Canada-wide early learning and child care system with provinces, territories and Indigenous partners. 

Combined with investments since 2016, including investments in Indigenous early learning and child care, the federal government has announced investments of nearly $40 billion in early learning and child care.

To date, eight provinces and territories are delivering regulated child care for an average of $10-a-day or less, including Quebec and the Yukon, which achieved this prior to the Canada-wide system. In all other provinces and territories, fees for regulated child care have been reduced by at least 50% on average. Provinces and territories are working toward lowering fees for regulated child care to $10-a-day on average by March 2026.

• Canada-wide early learning and child care is saving families, per child, up to $6,000 in Nova Scotia, $13,700 a year in Alberta, $8,500 in Ontario, $6,900 in Saskatchewan, $6,600 in British Columbia, $6,300 in Newfoundland and Labrador, $4,170 in Prince Edward Island, $3,600 in New Brunswick, $2,610 in Manitoba, $7,300 in the Yukon, $9,120 in the Northwest Territories, and $14,300 in Nunavut.

As part of the Canada-wide early learning and child care system, the Government of Canada is working with provinces and territories to create 250,000 new child care spaces across the country by March 2026 to increase access to affordable child care options for families, no matter where they live.

• To support this goal, the federal government previously announced the Early Learning and Child Care Infrastructure Fund . The Fund provides an additional $625 million to provinces and territories to support infrastructure projects for not-for-profit child care spaces in underserved communities, such as rural and remote regions, high-cost and low-income urban neighbourhoods, and communities that face barriers to access, including racialized groups, Indigenous Peoples, official language minority communities, newcomers, as well as parents, caregivers, and children with disabilities.
• To further accelerate progress, Budget 2024 announced a new $1 billion Child Care Expansion Loan Program, to help public and not-for-profit child care providers to build more child care spaces and renovate their existing child care centres.

To give every child the best start in life, the federal government is also:

• Giving families more money through the Canada Child Benefit to help with the costs of raising their children and to make a real difference in the lives of children in Canada. The Canada Child Benefit, which provides up to $7,437 per child per year, is indexed annually to keep up with the cost of living and has helped lift half a million children out of poverty since its launch in 2016.
• Improving access to dental health care for children under the age of 12 through the Canada Dental Benefit, and soon for children under 18 with the Canadian Dental Care Plan, because no one should have to choose between taking care of their kids’ teeth and putting food on the table.
• Creating a National School Food Program to ensure that every child has the best start in life, with the food they need to learn and grow, no matter their circumstances.
• Supporting after-school learning with an investment of $67.5 million to help all Canadian students reach their full potential. After-school learning and supports play an important role in helping students succeed in their academic pursuits, especially for at-risk students.

Associated links

• Toward $10-a-Day: Early Learning and Child Care
• Federal Secretariat on Early Learning and Child Care
• Multilateral Early Learning and Child Care Framework

For media enquiries, please contact:

Geneviève Lemaire Press Secretary Office of the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development [email protected]     

Media Relations Office Employment and Social Development Canada 819-994-5559 [email protected]

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