Panel from Veronika Prieler and Mariusz Sapieha at the 6th Transforming Care Conference (Web)

Time: 26.-28.06.2023
Venue: Sheffield
Proposals due: 30.01.2023

Description of the panel: Formal long-term care services for the elderly used to be provided mainly by public institutions and/or private, often church-related, not-for-profit organisations. Over the last decades, demographic and societal changes have led to rising demand for elderly care. Many countries, however, expanded public services only hesitantly. Instead, cash-for-care schemes were introduced and new (transnational) care markets emerged. Private commercial actors play an important role in these transitions within the elderly care sector. Ranging from large transnational chains to one-person companies they, e.g., run residential care homes, assisted living projects, or home care services, offer specialized nursing care services, recruit care professionals, broker migrant live-in workers or connect people in need of care with care providers, often operating transnationally.
The session invites papers that deal with private commercial actors and their role in developing and providing long-term care services for the elderly. The organizers welcome submissions from researchers of all career stages that address but are not limited to the following questions:

• Who are these commercial care entrepreneurs? What kind of narratives and aspirations do they mobilize? What links are there to other business sectors such as, e.g., investment, real estate, labor brokerage, or tourism?
• Which services do they provide and which (new) care solutions do they promote?
• How do private actors navigate national and supranational care-related policies and regulations? How do they interact with public and not-for-profit actors?
• What does the implementation of corporate and business logics mean for the elderly care sector, the working conditions, and the way care is experienced?
• How do regional, class-, or ethnicity-related inequalities come into play and which boundaries are (re-)drawn with regard to accessibility of care services?

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Kirsten Heinsohn, Anja Kruke, Katja Patzel-Mattern, Hedwig Richter und Sebastian Voigt in Koop. mit der Reichspräsident Friedrich Ebert-Gedenkstätte (Web)

Zeit: 28.-29.09.2023
Ort: Heidelberg
Einreichfrist: 06.02.2023

Als Louise Rump im Jahr 1894 Friedrich Ebert heiratete, wurde sie Gastwirtin, Hausfrau und Mutter und blieb zugleich Arbeiterin und Sozialdemokratin. Wie so viele Arbeiterinnen musste auch die Ehefrau des späteren Reichspräsidenten mehrere Berufe ausfüllen – ihre Arbeit endete nicht, wenn sie das Wirtshaus verließ, sondern setzte sich in ihren privaten Räumen fort. Ihr Alltag bestand aus der Arbeit im Beruf und im Haushalt. Hinzu kam die Sorge für die Familie und ihre Versorgung. Sie war ständig dieser mehrfachen Belastung ausgesetzt. Nur wurde die weibliche Arbeit im Haus nicht als solche verstanden. Sie galt (und gilt auch heute noch weitgehend) als geschlechtsspezifische Aufgabe von Frauen, die aus Liebe und aufgrund einer Veranlagung erfüllt wird. Zuhause ist die Arbeiterin eine Hausfrau und damit quasi natürlicherweise keine Arbeitende mehr. Dies gilt ebenso für unverheiratete Frauen, die sich nicht um einen Ehemann, aber um andere Familienangehörige kümmern. Daran hat sich bis heute wenig geändert: Noch immer ist die Familien- und Sorgearbeit vor allem die Aufgabe von Frauen.
Diese Beschreibung wirft einige Fragen auf: Wie thematisierten die Arbeiterinnen ihre spezifische Situation und versuchten, sie zu gestalten und ändern? Welche Rolle spielten derartige Kämpfe in den Organisationen der klassischen Arbeiter*innenbewegung und wie beeinflussten sie Familienbeziehungen? Ist die Geschichte von Arbeiterinnen vor allem eine Geschichte ihrer außerhäuslichen Erwerbstätigkeit und damit spezifischer Frauenberufe? Sind Hausfrauen, die in Arbeiterfamilien leben (und arbeiten) also keine Arbeiterinnen mehr? Wie muss der Begriff der Arbeit gefasst werden, um Frauen und Geschlechterverhältnisse besser in den Blick nehmen zu können? Wer leistet wo und unter welchen Bedingungen Reproduktionsarbeit und wie könnte eine Gesellschaftsgeschichte diese angemessen berücksichtigen? Die Tagung thematisiert damit auf einer theoretischen Ebene auch wesentlich die Frage danach, warum Frauen in so vielerlei Hinsicht in der Geschichte unsichtbar blieben. Weiterlesen und Quelle … (Web)

The 2023 Association of Social Anthropologists Conference (Web)

11.-14.04.2023
Venue: University of London
Proposals by: 07.01.2023

Longstanding feminist debates about the undervaluing and exploitation of caring labour came into focus in 2020, as the Covid pandemic closed schools and workplaces across the globe, and placed the lowest paid care workers on the frontlines of harm. This renewed and amplified interest in the politics, economics and social repercussions of care has moved beyond critique to alternatives conceptions of how care should be centred and interdependence celebrated.
This panel for the 2023 Association of Social Anthropologists Conference will focus in particular on the caring labour involved in looking after children, from the perspective of those providing the care. Looking at the recent and more distant past, we invite ethnographic and historical contributions that address the life-worlds agency and well-being of those who care for children. The organizers are particularly interested in how shifting forms of remunerated childcare – domestic and institutional; informal and professionalised; for cash or in-kind payments – enact or produce different norms, relations and reciprocities. For example, if workers become autonomous commercial providers of care, rather than being incorporated into households as junior dependents, what effect does this have on gendered, racialised and class-based hierarchies? Do different types of attachments, interests and subjectivities become possible in different child caring arrangements, and are others curtailed?
In the spirit of the call for repair over critique, the organizers are calling for papers that address future solutions and imagined alternatives, despite the challenges involved in formalising and organising this intimate form of work.

The conference will take place from 11-14 April 2023 at SOAS, University of London. The submission deadline for paper proposals is 7 January 2023. Paper proposals should be submitted to the panel organisers via the conference portal: (Web)
The organizers are happy to answer any questions in advance of the formal submission deadline. Sarah Howard and Sacha Hepburn (Birkbeck, Univ. of London, sarah.howard@bbk.ac.uk, s.hepburn@bbk.ac.uk)

Source: H-Net Notifications

Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarianism Studies at TU Dresden (HAIT) (Web)

Zeit: 26.-28.09.2023
Ort: Dresden
Einreichfrist: 15.01.2023

Up to today the post-1989 transformation has had long-lasting effects on lives and biographies in postsocialist societies. The biographical disruptions caused by the postsocialist reconfigurations created many so-called ‚losers‘ of the transformation, who have not had the chance or were unable to create biographical coherence across the systemic divide. Many of these so-called ‚losers‘ tend to, or are judged to, express their anger about the long-term inequalities caused by the reunification process with an increasing skepticism towards democracy and a new openness towards authoritarianism. But who are these so-called ‚losers‘? Can we determine members within a certain age group as particularly receptive to the authoritarian temptation? What is the connection between individuals‘ former age during the time of the postsocialist transformation and their political identities today?
The proposed conference starts from the observations that there are indeed no uniform experiences of ‘the’ transformation. Be it in East Germany or the countries of East Central Europe the various age groups experienced and responded differently to the political and social transformation in the past and remember and speak about it today in different ways. Certain ages, such as adolescence – which is in itself a period of rapid physical and mental transformation – are for instance more receptive to experiences of abrupt change than others, which has had implications for their attitude towards this historical event and its long aftermath. Thus, when looking at the various age groups one can detect various degrees of harmony/disharmony of certain biographical stages with the postsocialist transformation. This requires paying special attention to the dimension of age when it comes to understanding the political, social and biographical implications of the postsocialist transformation. So far, much research has been devoted to the separate study of the experiences of either childhood, adolescence, or old age. Yet, these studies have not contrasted the response of the various age groups to the transformation. Read more and source … (Web)

Deutsches Historisches Institut Warschau (DHI) and Ústav českých dějin, Filozofická fakulta Univ. Karlovy (Web)

Zeit: 22.-24.06.2023
Ort: DHI-Außenstelle Prag
Einreichfrist: 30.04.2023

English Version (Web)

Seit dem späten 18. Jhd. verschwanden nach und nach die mittelalterlichen und frühneuzeitlichen Spitäler, die Behinderten, Geisteskranken, Alten oder Obdachlosen Zuflucht boten. Krankenhäuser als Absonderungs- und Eindämmungsinstrumente für Infizierten mit Lepra und Pest wurden in Kliniken von Leidener Art umgewandelt; das menschliche Leben begann medikalisiert zu sein und die Gesundheitsfürsorge institutionalisiert. Die Gesundheit der Bevölkerung wurde zum Gegenstand amtlicher und wissenschaftlicher Untersuchungen. Die Behörden führten eine gesundheitliche Überwachung und ärztliche Kontrolle breiter Bevölkerungsschichten ein, sie bestimmten pathologische, gefährliche oder inakzeptable Handlungsweise und definierten die entsprechenden Verhaltensmuster. Das Bestreben des Staates, die Produktivität und die Wohlfahrt der Menschen zu maximieren, brachte Disziplinierung und Moralisierung mit sich. Im Interesse des Staates sowie der Einzelnen sollte es die Kranken so schnell wie möglich in den Wirtschafts- und Arbeitsprozess zurückführen. Die Ärzte und das Gesundheitspersonal sprachen sich gegen die „abergläubische“ ländliche Kultur aus. Krankheiten und Infektionen wurden zu einem politischen Thema und der menschliche Körper zu einem politisierten Objekt. Die Gesundheitsfürsorge verlagerte die Patient:innen von zu Hause in die Krankenhäuser, um den Wohlstand und die Vermehrung des Volksvermögens zu sichern.
Während die allgemeine Idee in vielerlei Hinsicht richtig sein mag, sollte hinzugefügt werden, dass sie nicht als einmaliges Ereignis zustande kam, sondern seit mehr als anderthalb Jahrhunderten andauerte. Außerdem war sie nicht die einzige Möglichkeit und setzte sich nicht immer und überall durch. Sie existierte neben anderen Formen der Gesundheitsversorgung, sei sie in der Familie und … weiterlesen und Quelle (Web).

Centre for the Study of Health, Ethics and Society, University of Hamburg (Web)

Time: 09.-10.06.2023
Venue: Warburg-Haus, Hamburg
Proposals due: 06.03.2023

How can gender and sexuality – broadly conceived both methodologically and thematically – help to inform historical understanding of the role of medicine in post-war Europe? This conference will bring together scholars working in different disciplines to examine how theoretical approaches incorporating gender and sexuality can shed light on medical ethics, scientific practices, and policymaking associated with health across the ideological divide. How can histories of gender and sexuality illuminate individual medical experiences and the complex relations between patients, doctors, policymakers, pharmaceutical companies, and medical ethicists during the Cold War period?
The organizers are particularly interested in papers which examine gender, sexuality, and medicine in Central and Eastern Europe in order to gain greater insight into how medicine was imagined, managed, sold and experienced across Europe. Exploring gender and sexuality in the context of post-war medicine can help us to discern potential similarities in medical practices, policies, and experiences across Europe, which moves beyond the security context and ideological differences of the Cold War to highlight the exchange of scientific ideas across the “Iron Curtain”. Examining gender, sexuality and medicine in the post-war period can bring about a new scholarly perspective on Europe as a continent that was to some extent united by shared experiences, policies, and beliefs. Read more and source … (Web)

Research Network: History of Body Politics in the Global South (Web); Elife Biçer-Deveci (Bern und Erlangen/Nürnberg), Sivan Balslev (Jerusalem), Esther Möller (Mainz), Cyrus Schayegh and Davide Rodogno (Geneva)

Time: 19.-22.06.2024
Venue: Geneva Graduate Institute
Proposals by: 20.03.2023

The conference will discuss the role of international organizations in shaping body politics in countries of the Global South during the 20th century. International organizations often took upon themselves responsibilities regarding the bodies of populations across the globe. Defending bodies from sickness, substance abuse, hunger, trafficking, and harmful labor was an official goal of organizations such as the League of Nations, the World Health Organization, the International Labor Organization, International Atomic Energy Association etc. Other international organizations such as missions, global businesses, humanitarian and aid organizations have equally dealt with body politics in their respective frameworks. The conference invites historians to discuss the agendas of international organizations from a critical perspective, questioning their neutral stances in the understanding and definition of the physical needs of societies in the Global South. (With Global South, the organizers refer to regions outside of Europe and North-America, which are newly industrialized, in the process of industrialization and are frequently current or former subjects of colonialism.)
Historians have often referred to racial and gendered biases in the agendas of international organizations towards non-European societies. Yet, the impact of their understanding of the bodies of the people they encountered is not yet sufficiently explored. The focus on bodies and body politics is usually considered in gender and sexuality studied, but less so in studies of international organizations. Examining the actions of international organizations can offer new insights on how colonial bodies were constructed by such organizations, how local actors reacted to such interferences, to what extent these constructions had an impact on social and political structures, and in which ways these constructions are perpetuated in the present. Read more … (Web)

Source: H-Net Notifications