Theory building
The idea that theory matters is foundational to the Centre for Care. Theory provides the essential architecture for organising knowledge, explaining phenomena and guiding effective policy and practice.
Key theoretical themes from across the Centre for Care
1. Life Course and Transitions
Theory in this area conceptualises how care needs and roles evolve over time. Examples used by colleagues from across the Centre include:
- Care Convoys Model: Used to analyse the care-related life transitions of working-age disabled people.
Click here to read ‘Care within and across borders: introducing a transnational convoy of care’ written by Dr. Kelly Hall and Professor Majella Kilkey.
Click here to read ‘Understanding the lived experiences of working-age disabled people in England and their care-related transitions through the framework of the convoy model’ written by Dr. Hayrunisa Pelge and Professor Catherine Needham. - Ecological Approaches: Applying life course perspectives to the financial wellbeing of unpaid carers.
Click here to read ‘The life course costs of caring: Understanding unpaid carers’ financial wellbeing over time’ written by Dr. Maxine Watkins and Dr. Louise Overton. - Intergenerational Solidarity: Exploring how “linked lives” influence the circulation of care within multi-sited families.
2. Systems, Policy and Complexity
The Centre applies theories to understand why social care systems are often resistant to reform, or alternative ways to think about policy ‘problems’.
- Complexity Theory: Used to define the social care “ecosystem” and its various functions
- Policy Theory: Combining “policy layering” with public service ecosystem frameworks to understand integration in health and social care.
- Social Model of Child Protection: Shifting focus from individual parental blame to the structural inequalities (like poverty and housing) that constrain a family’s capacity to care.
3. Migration, Borders, and Global Care
Theories in this space look at care through a lens of mobility and global structural inequalities.
- Transnational Care: Applying ‘circulation of care’ and ‘global care chain’ theories to understand geographically dispersed care networks
- Racial Capitalism and Post-Colonialism: Examining the impact of colonial legacies and racialisation on migrant care work and ‘embodied hierarchies’.
- Social Reproduction: Incorporating lived experiences from the Global South to ‘pluralise’ moving beyond Global North-centric theories.
4. Power, Work, and Identity
Theoretical work here focuses on the nature of care work and the identities of those who engage in it.
- Caring Masculinities: Utilising hegemonic and post-structuralist masculinity frameworks to understand men’s roles in care.
- Labour Process Theory: Blended with Science and Technology Studies to analyse the ways technologies shape and are shaped by care practices and care work.
- Ethics of Care: Drawing on the work of Professor Joan Tronto and others to position care as a concept that is an antidote to neoliberal capitalism.
Theory-Building Workshops
To help us to make advances related to theory, or that are informed by theory, we designed a programme of Theory-Building Workshops that developed new understanding of core concepts, identify theoretical and methodological gaps and develop new theory that is empirically-grounded and policy relevant. Six Theory-Building Workshops annually are open to staff, PhD students and Associates where we invite key care scholars from the UK and internationally to share their work and lead discussions aimed at:
- Developing new understanding of core concepts
- Identifying theoretical and methodological gaps
- Interrogating existing understandings of care to develop new theory that is empirically-grounded, policy relevant and applicable to all levels of the care ecosystem.
Theory building workshops held so far:
- Changes/variety in the organisation of paid work for how people experience/manage caring responsibilities during their working lives- Professor Sue Yeandle
- Long-term care as a policy issue for the European Union and United Nations organisations- Professor Mary Daly
- Intersectionality and care- Professor Fiona Williams
- Emotions and affect in social care- Dr. Eleanor Jupp
- Emotions and relationality- Dr. Chloe Alexander and Professor Catherine Needham
- Intersection of care / disability studies- Professor Teppo Kröger
- Care depletion- Professor Shirin Rai
- Time, Temporalities and Life Course- Professor Anna Tarrant
- Intersectionality theory- Professor Akwugo Emejulu
- Financial Wellbeing- Professor Adele Atkinson
- Unmet Need and dyads for older people in England- Professor Matt Bennett
- Unmet Need- Professor Athena Vlachantoni
Case study: Care as a complex, adaptive ecosystem
The Centre for Care’s Care as a Complex, Adaptive Ecosystem research theme co-created a visual representation of a flourishing social care ecosystem, drawn by artist Laura Brodrick. It’s developed from the idea that a flourishing system has visible and invisible activity, just like in nature. Care homes, services at home and hospitals are some of the visible parts of the system. The invisible parts are all the community activities which aren’t necessarily thought of as part of social care but are like microorganisms that make the soil rich and fertile. These are the coffee mornings, choirs, sports clubs, dance groups, faith organisations, family and neighbourhood networks which help people to have purpose and meaning.
We need both the visible and the invisible for a flourishing care ecosystem. When one part isn’t working well it overloads the other, resulting in a degraded ecosystem, like a barren landscape. In our research, we are looking at what characteristics lead to flourishing local care ecosystems. We explore whether the features of some local systems make them more likely to be degraded and failing, and how they can be supported to flourish.