Crisis(es) of Care

The crisis of care can be understood as a systemically conditioned manifestation of the careless capitalist organization of care and care work (cf. Aulenbacher/Dammayr/Décieux 2015). In their analysis of the care crisis(es), different authors set different accents, which are to be understood in terms of the entire social reproduction of societies and their natural foundations (cf. e.g. Jürgens 2010; Winker 2011). “A care crisis occurs when care deficits are not limited to individual households but spread nationally, regionally, or globally, with the situation coming to a head wherever the supply of and demand for care work develop in opposite directions, i.e., more and more care work is needed but less and less care work is performed.” (Knobloch 2013a: 25) The demands on social reproduction are increasing under neoliberal conditions of work and production while at the same time welfare state services and structures are being privatized and reduced. For caregivers, this is expressed in physical and psychological overloads and for care receivers in such a way that their care is no longer adequately ensured.