Abstract
The cost of social care, the work conditions experienced by care workers and the quality of care provided by residential homes for older people are all linked, yet we know very little about how this relationship works in practice. Drawing upon an ethnography of two differently priced residential care homes for older people in Southern England, I examine the implications of different financial regimes for care-giving practices. I show how the scheduling and allocation of resources—conveyed, for example, in formal routines and staffing levels—structure the care workers’ time, tasks and activities in each setting. This acts to symbolically demarcate what, or who, is valued. I argue that the availability of resources facilitates and impedes the symbolic culture of care work, shapes care workers’ ability to afford dignity to the individuals in their care and affects how care workers experience, and relate to, their labour. I conclude by discussing how current practices of funding and pricing social care have effects seeping beyond the practical and measurable, and into the realm of the symbolic.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Sociology of Health and Illness |
| Early online date | 7 Sept 2022 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 7 Sept 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:I would like to thank the editors of Sociology of Health and Illness, two anonymous reviewers and Gareth Thomas for their insightful comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this article. I would also like to thank Finn Bowring and Ralph Fevre who, as my Ph.D. supervisors, provided feedback on a thesis chapter that formed the basis of this article. Finally, my thanks are extended to the care workers who made this project possible. This research was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.
Funding Information:
I would like to thank the editors of , two anonymous reviewers and Gareth Thomas for their insightful comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this article. I would also like to thank Finn Bowring and Ralph Fevre who, as my Ph.D. supervisors, provided feedback on a thesis chapter that formed the basis of this article. Finally, my thanks are extended to the care workers who made this project possible. This research was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. Sociology of Health and Illness
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. Sociology of Health & Illness published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness.
Research Groups and Themes
- SPS Centre for Research in Health and Social Care