Title: En Route to Recovery: Diversity and vulnerability in care work during and after the COVID-19 pandemic
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Abstract: The overarching objective is to study how the Covid-19 experience has changed ideas and practices of giving care across a range of transnational contexts, namely Finland, Canada/Ontario, UK/Scotland and South Africa. We address people in vulnerable or precarious situations in giving care, and how the global pandemic has impacted on local conditions in different care jobs. We are particularly interested in the challenges in relation to (in)equalities affecting people in vulnerable and precarious situations in giving care. We look at how they have experienced their work through the pandemic, and how they see their futures. Our research will illuminate how human sustainability and resilience could be improved in post-pandemic times through lessons learnt from the actual crisis situations across different national contexts. Covid-19 has made many global problems visible. We argue that to understand the very basic aspects of surviving and human living, care is to be addressed now and in the future. Our focus is on the circumstances where care is done, and how care can also be an element of uncaring, such as a need to leave children behind to care for other people's children (care chains) or a continuous precarious work conditions where one is responsible for someone else's well-being, but the carer cannot promise even the next day's service because of one's own unstable work conditions. We aim to explore how the complex intersectionalised inequalities created in the four different country contexts have impacted on care workers' experiences and expectations during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. Our research questions are as follows: 1. What are the major challenges that people in vulnerable or precarious situations in giving care have encountered related to the pandemic, and what intersectional inequalities are amplified as people narrate their experiences in care work during the pandemic? 2. How could inequalities experienced by people in vulnerable or precarious situations in giving care be tackled in order to increase resilience, human sustainability and work wellbeing? 3. What kind of lessons as respect to care can be found through narratives from different national contexts that can enable recovery from the pandemic and renewal of care provisions? To address the key factors in Priority 2 of the call: Resilient, Inclusive and Sustainable Society we will: 1. Include macro and micro factors in data collection and analysis in order to reveal the mechanisms of inequalities (working on macro and micro levels interconnectedly) and therefore render changes in organisational and policy practices to enhance inclusiveness and human sustainability 2. Consider economic implications of recommendations for both private and public sectors 3. Identify barriers to participation based upon vulnerabilities 4. Ensure that the cultural and country context is captured and considered in assessing sustainability, including financial/economic, ethical, social, political, legal, and governmental realities.

Lay abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has placed unprecedented strains on formal and informal care work, worldwide. Paradoxically, the pandemic created new jobs and possibilities in care work, but the jobs remain physically and mentally strenuous, low paid, and often with fixed term, precarious contracts and high turnover rates. These jobs present significant health risks for workers, given the potential to contract and spread the virus. Our project will focus on employees performing vital COVID-19 related jobs: providing individual care to vulnerable clients in both organisational and home settings. We will examine how diverse people (in Finland, Canada, Scotland/UK and South Africa) who work/have worked in formal and informal care address challenges by collaboratively examining their ideas to ease risks and develop opportunities to deliver and receive care. Specifically, we will analyse how care workers in precarious positions (women, LGBTI2S people, and migrant status or minority ethnic people) are experiencing COVID-19 crises in their work, and how they see a post-pandemic future. Our research is based on the United Nations (UN) research recovery roadmap and this Call's focus on reducing inequalities and vulnerabilities, and building a resilient, inclusive, and sustainable society. We will apply both quantitative and innovative qualitative methods to investigate how care sector workers have experienced the pandemic and how they see their post-pandemic times at work. Research participants will explore their working lives during and after the pandemic. We will conduct a cross-cultural narrative analysis with an intersectionality approach using longitudinal participatory methods (photovoice and soundsourcing). This information will be supplemented with a systematic literature review and secondary data. In collaboration with stakeholders, we will develop policy recommendations and share good practices with institutions and services responsible for care workers. Our collaborative approach with all stakeholders will provide sustainable suggestions and policy recommendations that should have worldwide application.

Research activity codes: 8.1 ORGANISATION AND DELIVERY OF SERVICES
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE;INFECTION