Resisting regulatory rigidities: lessons from front-line care work

Abstract

In order to advance an argument addressing whether or not ethical and empowering care work is possible within the context of neoliberalism and managerialism, this article draws on international comparative, qualitative case-study data to ask whether processes and practices of radical care and emancipation already exist in nonprofit long-term care and social service work. If so, what do they look like, and what factors hinder or nurture social justice-based care practices? Given that paid and unpaid care continues to be a highly gendered and increasingly racialized realm of feminized struggle, it warrants further theorization and greater centrality within emancipatory projects and strategies.