Brazil

Care, inequalities, and the pandemic: between family, the market, and the state

The project aims to analyze the social organization of care in Brazil. This is a subject that has become especially visible in recent years with the increase of publications in Brazil and abroad.

However, there are still significant challenges both theoretically and to government policies and the actions of organized collectives. This is because, while visible and essential, care work is precarious and vulnerable. Abundant evidence shows disproportionately negative consequences for women, particularly Black women, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It can be hypothesized that two main characteristics denote the social organization of care in Brazil. First is social inequality, marked by the intersections of class, gender, and race dimensions. Second is familyism, a value that drives both individual behavior and the normative system and government policies.

 Research focus areas:

To verify this argument, three research areas will be addressed:

1. the care needs of different family arrangements

2. the circuits and configurations of care jobs

3. care rights and policies

Joining researchers and actors in the care field:

The project will mobilize an inter-institutional and inter-disciplinary team of recognized experts in ways to produce evidence about the nature of care organization in Brazil. Furthermore, the Brazilian team will be part of an international network organized around the “Rebuilding Care in a Post-andemic World” project. In this way the analyses of Brazil can be put in perspective when compared to the prevalent social organization of care regimes in the other countries involved: Canada, Colombia, United States, France, and United Kingdom.

Our team is moved by our interest in generating socially useful results. In this sense, the project’s management model counts on a National Advisory Board that will work to nurture the dialogues between academic specialists and representatives for care workers, agencies that produce information and management for policies that affect care, as well as for philanthropic and civil society entities in the field.