Conflicts over Care: Normative and Political Problems in the Analysis of Care Policy Reforms

Gender Studies Seminar with Rossella Ciccia (University of Oxford, UK)

Conflicts over Care: Normative and Political Problems in the Analysis of Care Policy Reforms

Abstract

Conflict seems inherent in care. There are more needs for care than can ever be met. (Tronto 1998, 17). 

The separation of the study of care across different area of research and the prominence of political parties and women’s political agencies in analysis of care policies has fostered a view of care as inherently ridden by conflict. 

To remedy this situation, this seminar elaborates on a rights-based approach to care to develop a framework for the analysis of the politics of care reforms that connects the viewpoints of different types of care actors, and the multiple inequalities present in relations of care. This framework serves a dual purpose: as a standard to critically examine the ‘goodness’ of care policies from an intersectional perspective; and as a tool to understand the way the politics of care unfolds in specific socio-historical contexts by identifying the sources of conflict – as well as those generating cooperation – between the different actors mobilizing around care.

Bio

Rossella Ciccia is Associate Professor at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention at the University of Oxford. Her research and publication span several themes relating to comparative social policy, gender, care and social inequalities. In February 2020, she received the inaugural Emma Goldman award in recognition of the substantial contributions of her research to knowledge on feminist and inequality issues in Europe. Her research was also awarded the European Journal of Politics and Gender 2022 Best Article Award and the nominee honour for the Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Excellence in Work/Family Research. Since 2024, she is one of the editors-in-chief of the Journal of European Social Policy.

Chair: Ov Cristian Norocel, Associate Professor in Gender Studies, Department of Sociology, Lund University