Paper Short Abstract:

This paper explores the ways in which ‘routine’ and ‘familiarity’ are maintained through narratives and life stories, and how narratives of biographical pasts and potential futures map out the temporalities of interdependence and imaginations of the future in North Manchester, England.

Paper Abstract:

This paper is based on over a decade of ethnographic research in a social housing estate in North Manchester, England, with families who rely upon state welfare benefits to make ends meet. Drawing on an ethnographic example of a man who ‘sofa surfs’ in family members’ homes, this paper explores the ways in which his family come together to manage and maintain a sense of familiarity, care and routine for him as he struggles with self-care and his mental health. Specifically, this paper analyses the preoccupations and narratives of his wellbeing and his future, often expressed through labours of care, and discusses the following three points, ethnographically: Firstly, the labours of care that are done to establish and maintain a routine, including the rituals of preparation for his arrival in their homes contribute to a shared sense of his agency and autonomy in what would otherwise be confusing, contradictory circumstances. Secondly, in/through stories of his life, he appears as a ‘character-in-a-plot’ that is both passive and responsible at once. Finally, the labours of care are productive in that a moral incapacity is collectively cultivated by his family through the provision of routine care and support to him, and provide an opportunity for collective reflection on what his and their own lives could have turned out like, had events in their lives been different. This paper demonstrates the ways in which articulations of ‘routine’ and ‘familiarity’ forged through narratives, map out many temporalities of interdependence and imaginations of the future.