Papers by Katharina Pelzelmayer
Die Rundumbetreuung erfüllt den Wunsch betreuungsbedürftiger alter Menschen und ihrer Familien, w... more Die Rundumbetreuung erfüllt den Wunsch betreuungsbedürftiger alter Menschen und ihrer Familien, weiter zuhause leben zu können – so auch in der Schweizer 24-Stunden-Betreuung. Die Betreuung wird vielfach durch Arbeitsmigration ermöglicht. Arbeitsrechtlich gestaltet sich dieser Bereich allerdings höchst problematisch.
Care for the elderly is a contemporary issue of multi-level, feminist concern. In Switzerland, pr... more Care for the elderly is a contemporary issue of multi-level, feminist concern. In Switzerland, private firms mediate or employ non-resident caregivers to work and live in private households. In a qualitative analysis of three discursive moments, this paper explores how the notion of place is mobilised in live-in care. On broker websites, place figures as origin. Labour intermediaries ascribe care workers’ characteristics such as ‘warmth’ with reference to place of origin. Critical scholarship discusses these place-related dynamics in terms of ethnicisation. In the public discourse, place comes to matter in a sustained focus on care workers’ cross-border migration. Considering that notions of gender, work, and migration are inseparably intertwined in transnational caregiving, the paper argues that the discursive foregrounding of place eclipses the importance of the work and gender regimes. In particular, a discursive stress on care workers’ places of origin and cross-border migration neglects the gendered division of work that underlies this form of private live-in elder care.
ABSTRACT
This paper investigates uses of the concept of commodification in
contemporary analyses ... more ABSTRACT
This paper investigates uses of the concept of commodification in
contemporary analyses of waged care. Drawing on theoretical work
on commodification and discourse-analytical research on private
live-in care in Switzerland, I explore how Swiss live-in care questions
central discussions in the literature. Scholars have focused on the ways
in which care is embroiled within market relations and the adverse
effects of commodification on the character and quality of care.
The paper outlines the two central discussions, identifies important
limitations and explores the ways in which Swiss live-care contests
their underlying assumptions. Swiss live-in care exhibits intricate
processes of waging elder care. Live-in care services are offered and
arranged on agency websites while taking place at elderly persons’
private households. Elder care thus becomes entangled in market
relations both in virtual spaces and at home. Furthermore, live-in care
workers do not distance themselves from their work but actively seek
to improve their conditions of work. In so doing, they complicate the
assumption that paying for care corrupts caregiving or turns it into
a product for sale. Based on this evidence from Swiss live-in care,
I propose that a carefuluse of commodification might best serve
feminist interventions.
This article focuses on live-in elder care workers in German-speaking Switzerland, with a focus o... more This article focuses on live-in elder care workers in German-speaking Switzerland, with a focus on the city of Basel. Working with the Lefebvrian concept of le droit à la ville, it critically investigates the extent to which circularly migrating women can negotiate their right to the city when working as private 24-hour carers in Basel. It first discusses how the Swiss migration and labor regimes in this gendered field of work affect their rights, access, belonging, and participation in the city. The article then analyzes two examples of how live-in care workers challenge existing regulations individually and collectively, and instigate changes at the level of the city. Exploring the idea of participation beyond formal recognition such as residency and citizenship, the paper critically reflects on the right-to-the-city debate's key concept of inhabitance. Focusing on women who – as circular migrants – only reside in Switzerland for a few weeks at a time and who – as live-in workers – are often isolated in private households, the paper argues that work arrangements and mobility are key to understanding inhabitants' right to the city.
Part of Women's Lives around the World: A Global Encylcopedia, this entry engages with a range of... more Part of Women's Lives around the World: A Global Encylcopedia, this entry engages with a range of issues that might affect women and girls living in the country of Austria. These include education, sexuality, social behaviour and family roles, employment and socio-economic issues such as female labour force particpation, gender pay gap, household rules and responsibilities, family life, marriage and divorce, institutional support for mothers and caretakers, questions of politics and participation, political organisation such as women's movements and feminist struggles in Austria, issues of integration and participation for women and girls not born in the territory of Austria, issues of religion, spirituality, and cultural roles, violence - in the private and public spheres, and health issues.
The entry recognises formal achievements in women-specific, gender-sensitive. Yet social policy-making remains accompanied by continuities and struggles to keep achievements in place. This non-linear trajectory cristalises in the struggle of ensuring permanent institutionalisation.
Bodies are at the heart of 24-h care work. On the one hand, as the principal agents that care, wo... more Bodies are at the heart of 24-h care work. On the one hand, as the principal agents that care, work, and move. On the other, also as the aging and care-receiving elderly. To some extent, both are in contrast to the neo-liberal ideal of the disembodied, individuated subject.
This draft book chapter engages with the materialisation of the caring, working, moving bodies in the context of their discursive appellation as 'female care migrants' and idealised Eastern European carers.
Reflecting on conceptualisations of 'the body,' it considers the possibility of formulating an integrated concept - the body-subject.
In recent years, private care agencies have successfully established a growing market in individu... more In recent years, private care agencies have successfully established a growing market in individual 24h elderly care packages. The intensive quotidian care work as well as the regular transnational circular migration that many 24h live-in care workers perform as part of this arrangement takes place in a context that subjects their bodies to specific border and employment regimes. Concerned with these caring, moving bodies, this paper is interested in what particular understandings of work this 24h elderly care model works with and mobilises.
Drawing on a discourse analysis of how Swiss care agencies market their services online, the paper discusses how this 24h elderly care model re-articulates gendered norms around caring responsibilities along specifically ethnicised and ethnicising lines. In particular ‘the migrant, Eastern European carer’ is invoked, which qualifies a woman qua her origin and sex as a good carer, and is contrasted to a supposedly less family-oriented Swiss femininity. Looking at the re-articulation of gendered and ethnicised norms and expectations around (care) work and caring responsibilities is politically significant for such an analysis illustrates how in this specific instant of 24h elderly care gender, space and working bodies are mobilised in late capitalism.
Talks by Katharina Pelzelmayer
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Papers by Katharina Pelzelmayer
This paper investigates uses of the concept of commodification in
contemporary analyses of waged care. Drawing on theoretical work
on commodification and discourse-analytical research on private
live-in care in Switzerland, I explore how Swiss live-in care questions
central discussions in the literature. Scholars have focused on the ways
in which care is embroiled within market relations and the adverse
effects of commodification on the character and quality of care.
The paper outlines the two central discussions, identifies important
limitations and explores the ways in which Swiss live-care contests
their underlying assumptions. Swiss live-in care exhibits intricate
processes of waging elder care. Live-in care services are offered and
arranged on agency websites while taking place at elderly persons’
private households. Elder care thus becomes entangled in market
relations both in virtual spaces and at home. Furthermore, live-in care
workers do not distance themselves from their work but actively seek
to improve their conditions of work. In so doing, they complicate the
assumption that paying for care corrupts caregiving or turns it into
a product for sale. Based on this evidence from Swiss live-in care,
I propose that a carefuluse of commodification might best serve
feminist interventions.
The entry recognises formal achievements in women-specific, gender-sensitive. Yet social policy-making remains accompanied by continuities and struggles to keep achievements in place. This non-linear trajectory cristalises in the struggle of ensuring permanent institutionalisation.
This draft book chapter engages with the materialisation of the caring, working, moving bodies in the context of their discursive appellation as 'female care migrants' and idealised Eastern European carers.
Reflecting on conceptualisations of 'the body,' it considers the possibility of formulating an integrated concept - the body-subject.
Drawing on a discourse analysis of how Swiss care agencies market their services online, the paper discusses how this 24h elderly care model re-articulates gendered norms around caring responsibilities along specifically ethnicised and ethnicising lines. In particular ‘the migrant, Eastern European carer’ is invoked, which qualifies a woman qua her origin and sex as a good carer, and is contrasted to a supposedly less family-oriented Swiss femininity. Looking at the re-articulation of gendered and ethnicised norms and expectations around (care) work and caring responsibilities is politically significant for such an analysis illustrates how in this specific instant of 24h elderly care gender, space and working bodies are mobilised in late capitalism.
Talks by Katharina Pelzelmayer
This paper investigates uses of the concept of commodification in
contemporary analyses of waged care. Drawing on theoretical work
on commodification and discourse-analytical research on private
live-in care in Switzerland, I explore how Swiss live-in care questions
central discussions in the literature. Scholars have focused on the ways
in which care is embroiled within market relations and the adverse
effects of commodification on the character and quality of care.
The paper outlines the two central discussions, identifies important
limitations and explores the ways in which Swiss live-care contests
their underlying assumptions. Swiss live-in care exhibits intricate
processes of waging elder care. Live-in care services are offered and
arranged on agency websites while taking place at elderly persons’
private households. Elder care thus becomes entangled in market
relations both in virtual spaces and at home. Furthermore, live-in care
workers do not distance themselves from their work but actively seek
to improve their conditions of work. In so doing, they complicate the
assumption that paying for care corrupts caregiving or turns it into
a product for sale. Based on this evidence from Swiss live-in care,
I propose that a carefuluse of commodification might best serve
feminist interventions.
The entry recognises formal achievements in women-specific, gender-sensitive. Yet social policy-making remains accompanied by continuities and struggles to keep achievements in place. This non-linear trajectory cristalises in the struggle of ensuring permanent institutionalisation.
This draft book chapter engages with the materialisation of the caring, working, moving bodies in the context of their discursive appellation as 'female care migrants' and idealised Eastern European carers.
Reflecting on conceptualisations of 'the body,' it considers the possibility of formulating an integrated concept - the body-subject.
Drawing on a discourse analysis of how Swiss care agencies market their services online, the paper discusses how this 24h elderly care model re-articulates gendered norms around caring responsibilities along specifically ethnicised and ethnicising lines. In particular ‘the migrant, Eastern European carer’ is invoked, which qualifies a woman qua her origin and sex as a good carer, and is contrasted to a supposedly less family-oriented Swiss femininity. Looking at the re-articulation of gendered and ethnicised norms and expectations around (care) work and caring responsibilities is politically significant for such an analysis illustrates how in this specific instant of 24h elderly care gender, space and working bodies are mobilised in late capitalism.