Care

The concept of care can refer to many different forms of caring activity. Care can also refer to organized systems of care, and it can be conceptualized as both work and care for others. Both care and care work are gendered and operate on transnational, nation-state, organizational, community, family and individual levels, and often in intersection with age, gender, generation, class, (dis)ability, ethnicity, racialization, migration status, sexuality and further divisions. Even if care is predominantly understood as part of, and located with, reproduction, in the broad sense, it can be a part of both production and reproduction in society. Care also takes place in organizations, explicitly framed by formal policy, and implicitly in the mundane practices performed by organizational members. Care and caring can also be used more widely to refer to, and be relevant in relation to, care for animals, non-humans, the environment and the planet.