Title: ReValuing Care: Perspectives from Gender, Sexuality and Law
Funder: Arts and Humanities Research Council

Abstract: The ReValuing Care Research Network will be an international, interdisciplinary network of academics and related third sector professionals working together to interrogate contemporary and future approaches to conceptual and normative understandings of care. Members of the network will include academics working on issues related to care from a variety of different sites, disciplines and contexts, including healthcare, childcare, eldercare, environmental issues, animal welfare and other related fields. The network builds on academic connections initially developed through the AHRC-funded Research Centre for Law, Gender and Sexuality (CentreLGS, funded 2004-2009, graded Outstanding), and will facilitate the strengthening of links between centre partner institutions, (Keele, Kent and Westminster) and the creation of new research collaborations with the Fay Gale Centre for Research on Gender at the University of Adelaide, alongside other new international and interdisciplinary academic collaborations that arise through the network activities. The Gender, Sexuality and Law research group at Keele, who will lead on the network, have an established international reputation for cutting edge scholarship in gender, sexuality and law. The Fay Gale Centre builds on interdisciplinary excellence in gender studies at the University of Adelaide to provide a focus for the development and uptake of new theoretical and methodological approaches relating to gender in society. Care has been a mainstay of feminist research for the last three decades, with different approaches to care being ascendant at different times. The research questions at the heart of this research network will contribute to future conceptual understandings of care, through providing physical and virtual spaces for scholars to interact, discuss and present their work. The participants in the research network will be drawn from a variety of different disciplinary backgrounds and will therefore draw on a multiplicity of conceptual approaches and methodological tools. At the heart of the planned research network is a commitment to creating opportunities for open dialogue between academics and activists, advocates and others working in the third sector. To do so, the network will run two international, interdisciplinary workshops. The first workshop, 'Resources for Caring' will take place in September 2012 at Keele University, UK. Workshop 2, 'Caring about Social Interconnection' will take place in September 2013 at the University of Adelaide. The workshops will be carefully structured to provide space for discussion and interaction, as well as allowing for the presentation of both empirical and conceptual academic work. The workshop organizers will ensure that the format of each event is as inclusive and facilitative of non-academic engagement as possible. Each of these physical meeting spaces for the network will be supported through the development and implementation of an interactive website. Workshop participants and network members will be encouraged to continue the conversations started at the workshops through the network website. Use of the website will be integrated with the workshop activities, in order to ensure that participants and discussions effectively cross the boundary between physical and virtual space. The research network activities will be overseen by an Advisory Panel, with both academic and third sector members. Following the workshops, three further outputs from the project will be developed: 1) an edited collection of papers from the project, aimed at an academic audience, will be drawn together, edited by Harding (PI) and Fletcher (Co-I); 2) a policy-relevant report identifying key themes, questions and issues generated at the workshops will be published on the project website; and 3) the key participants aim to put together an international collaborative research project team to take forward one or more of the identified research priorities.


Research activity codes: 8.1 ORGANISATION AND DELIVERY OF SERVICES;8.5 RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE (HEALTH SERVICES)
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE