Care work in Europe: how do Care work in Europe: how do we compare? we compare?

Claire Cameron and Peter MossThomas Coram Research Unit

Institute of Education, University of London

Care work in EuropeCare work in Europe

• EC funded 2001 - 2005• 6 Partners

– Denmark, Hungary, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and UK

– English as working language

• Main objective– to contribute to the development of good quality

employment in care work in services that are responsive to needs of changing societies

Study methods• Mapping the care workforce using European and

national level literature and statistics. Main themes - quality, job satisfaction and gender issues

• Three cross-national case studies of work: young children (HU, DK, SP); older people (SW, ENG, SP + HU); adults with severe disabilities (DK, NE, SW)

• Development of video-based method for cross-national study of practice in care work (SOPHOS)

• www.ioe.ac.uk/tcru/carework

Today we will …• Illuminate some points at which

contestation of concepts took place in the comparative project: – Country unique concepts– Contested concepts– Concepts with differing salience

• Discuss some issues that need to be thought about to address these contestations

Country unique concepts• Kropslighed – ‘bodyliness’, the use and expression

of the body in everyday life• ‘You could say that the children’s bodies are dealt

with in a different manner in the Danish film … The children’s bodies are much more accepted. The body is allowed to be there. It is strongly symbolized by the fact that he is allowed to put his legs up on the table not only once but two times. … one way or the other the body has been reduced to a head in the English film.’ (Danish expert)

Contested concepts• ‘Care’ in English = anxiety, burden, concern,

protection, responsibility • ‘Care’ in Swedish – Omsorg; Dutch – Zorg =

worry about, take care of, care for, nurse• ‘Care’ in Hungarian – gondoskodás =

satisfying physical, emotional, social needs• ‘Care’ in Spanish – cuidado = informal care,

self care, responsibility, prevention of danger, ethos of health and wellbeing

• Denmark – ‘Care’ or ‘Pedagogy’…

Pedagogy in Denmark• Theory, practice and profession, widespread and long

established in continental Europe – but ‘invisible’ in English, lost in translation

• pædagogik is based on the Greek word paidagogike or paideia.

• Modern meaning is opdragelse og dannelse (education and cultural formation), an essential Danish way of thinking and not easily translated

• Pedagogy aims at improving learning and developing options on behalf of ideals of individuals and society

• ‘Care’ services are ‘pedagogical services; ‘care workers’ are ‘pedagogues’

Pedagogy in Hungary ‘When talking about children, most of the time

we use the word nevelés, which does not have an English equivalent. Its meaning is close to ‘upbringing’, and it involves the concepts of both care and education. It expresses that care and education are inseparable concepts. When you provide care, you also teach children directly and indirectly’

Όvόno – kindergarten teacher kindergarten pedagogue

Concepts with differing salience• Dignity• Mentioned frequently in relation to good

care for older people in England, and Spain• Barely mentioned at all in Sweden, where

good care was largely in place• A reflection of differing policies in place to

provide ‘good’ care – or conceptualisations of older people?

A cautionary note…Cross-country vignette asked of care workers:

• An old lady does not want to be showered because she does not want to show her naked body. (Sweden)

• An elderly client refuses to be helped with having a bath, because he is too shy to show you his body naked. (England)

Ways to compare – some thoughts…

• Rationale for cross-national work – making the familiar strange? valuing difference?

• Building a team and a proposal – shared concepts? Build understanding of different concepts - making space to explore concepts?

• Language – multi-lingual researchers? Large translation budgets? Methods that use non-verbal languages and reveal differing perspectives?

‘The issues related to language differences, the complexity and costs of translations, the importance of working within a certain linguistic geography all have much greater significance than partnerships had allowed themselves to admit in their original enthusiasm…This has led to a pragmatism of settling for more commonly spoken languages and for the English language predominantly with all the associated exclusionary consequences…

…There is always the need to get results, to be pragmatic, to overcome language difficulties as barriers, and not enough time and space to explore the subtleties of meaning through non-comprehension …This seems to hold up the work, those representing lesser spoken languages come to regard this as their personal problem…And yet, it would be precisely the non-understanding which could give us the most valuable clues to differences in meaning, to the need for further clarification of familiar terms and concepts, to the transformation of taken-for-granted perspectives into creative, shared knowledge’

Walter Lorenz, 1999