About Care Talk
Welcome to Care Talk! This blog was founded by Nancy Folbre to engage researchers, students, journalists, and others interested in the “care sector”– an important part of our economy devoted to the direct care of others through the family, the community, the market, and the state. In collaboration with Jocelyn Olcott and the Revaluing Care in the Global Economy network, the blog now features posts by researchers working in the quantitative and qualitative social sciences as well as the humanities to explore the problems of 1) how to measure economic contributions made by families and communities; 2) the shortcomings of the standard “business model” based on profit maximization and consumer choice as a means of delivering effective care services through the market; 3) poor institutional design in the U.S. public sector, which often fails to deliver equitable, efficient, or politically sustainable systems of care provision; and 4) the analysis of alternative models for ensuring equitable access to and valuation of both paid and unpaid care.
Little Kids vs. Big Business
Current U.S. Congressional efforts to expand the Child Tax Credit offer telling insights into the partisan divide.
Taxing the Stork
New empirical research reveals why European family support policies, while far more generous than those of the U.S., are not as “pro-parent” as they claim to be
The U.S. Child Care Crunch
Stripped of support provided during the pandemic, the child-care industry is cracking up
CryptoCare©
Perhaps you’re curious to know—just hypothetically–how far the current value of global cryptocurrency could go toward increasing the supply of child care in the U.S.
Responding to Violence with Care
How different might our society look if public safety could be reimagined as caring for people and communities?
Podcast: Undervaluing the Work of Care
Check out this wide-ranging, international, and interdisciplinary discussion of the many reasons why care work is undervalued.
Bargain Hunting: Seeking Sustainable Care in a Globalized World
A recent book reckons with the “moral bargain” that provides protections for some at the expense of others.
Injustice in Temporary Migrant Care Worker Programs
Employment law’s limited view of the migrant care worker merely as an employee defies Immigration law’s acknowledgement of the social need of care workers. By characterizing migrant care workers as isolated employees, Temporary Foreign Worker Programs dissociate care workers from their own social relationships.
Canada’s “Citizens in Waiting”
Canada’s vaunted path to citizenship for care workers is seriously flawed.
Guestworkers or Culture Ambassadors? The US Au Pair Program
Caught up between the ambiguous migration regulations of family membership and cultural exchange, au pairs find themselves in precarious positions concerning their paid and unpaid labor
Caregiving at the Crossroads of Labor and Immigration Law
Temporary visa programs leave participants at the mercy of their employers, and therefore susceptible to abuse. Home care workers hoping to enforce their rights have two options: complain to the Department of Labor or pursue private litigation
Legacies of the 1965 US Immigration Reforms
The 1965 Hart-Celler Immigration and Naturalization Act severely curtailed immigration of care workers to the United States, creating a significant care deficit in many families.
Getting to Win-Win?: Labor Justice for Migrant Careworkers
The posts in this forum on visas for immigrant careworkers explore possibilities for policies that afford full labor protections and social inclusion for a system that serves both the providers and recipients of care.
Claudia and Care
Hearty applause for the honor paid to this year’s winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics should be combined with a critical look at her work.
The Uncaring Rewards of Paid Care
Field research conducted in Teeside in northeast England highlights the links between precarity and low pay for workers providing long-term care.