Following the virtual launch of Unfree: Migrant Domestic Work in Arab States (Stanford University Press, 2021) by Professor Rhacel Salazar Parreñas on 25 October 2021, CASEI will be supporting the next event of the Transforming Economies of Care seminar series. This is organised by Distinguished Professor Bev Skeggs and Daisy Baker (Lancaster University), Dr Emma Dowling (University of Vienna) and Dr Amy Horton (University College London).

On Monday 13 December 2021, 4-5.30pm (16.00-17.30 UK BST) CASEI will be hosting the second event on ‘Financing Care: Labour Rights Amid New Models of Investment’. This features contributions from Professor Kendra Strauss (Simon Fraser University), Kevin Lucas (UNISON North West) and Professor Colin Haslam (Queen Mary University of London) with Dr Kate Bayliss (SOAS) as a discussant. The event will be convened virtually on Zoom in conjunction with The Sociological Review.

As care needs rise, models of financial investment in the social care sector are proliferating, and care work, already a major source of employment, is seen as key to future jobs. However, poor pay and conditions are generating exploitation and labour shortages in many places. The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the challenges facing care staff and services.

What are the prospects for protecting labour rights and improving working conditions? Research has shown that private equity firms and real estate investors have squeezed wages and employment conditions to increase financial returns from care companies. This session will explore these dynamics of financialisation. We will debate the strategies that care workers and their supporters are using to promote labour rights in this context. And we will consider experiments to finance care differently, informed by research on relational business models, wellbeing and social infrastructure.

You can register for the seminar through Eventbrite here. Please direct any queries to Dr Michael Lambert (CASEI): m.lambert3@lancaster.ac.uk.