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- Convenors:
-
Bert de Graaff
(Erasmus University Rotterdam)
Robert Borst (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
Roland Bal (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
Karin van Vuuren (ESHPM, Erasmus University Rotterdam)
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- Chair:
-
Bert de Graaff
(Erasmus University Rotterdam)
- Format:
- Traditional Open Panel
- Location:
- HG-09A29
- Sessions:
- Tuesday 16 July, -
Time zone: Europe/Amsterdam
Short Abstract:
We welcome contributions that explore practices of caring in relation to environmental crises and disasters. We are interested in how caring makes us attentive to the work, emotions, and politics that, together, enact emergencies and disasters, including our responses to them.
Long Abstract:
The risks and uncertainties enveloped in the climate crisis and terrestrial transformations are increasingly felt through emergencies and disasters such as floods, pandemics, and wildfires. These acute crises underscore the vulnerabilities and interdependencies through which we “maintain, continue and repair ‘our world’ so that we can (all) live in it as well as possible” (Fisher & Tronto, 1991, p.40). In this panel we invite contributions that conceptually and empirically explore practices of caring in relation to environmental crises, disasters, and other societal overflows. Instead of conceptualising such practices as those of resilience or preparedness, as the crisis literature generally does, we are interested in exploring how caring – as a committed speculative sensitivity (Puig de la Bellacasa, 2017), makes us attentive to the work, emotions, and politics that, together, enact emergencies and disasters, including our responses to them. For instance, we want to discuss how we can move beyond the logics of control and early warnings (Rhodes & Lancaster, 2023) to explore the longue durée and sociotechnical-transformative nature of emergencies and disasters. What traces do caregivers leave behind when they move on? What remains when the acutely wounded have been treated, and the evaluations have been drawn up? We invite inquiries that are sensitive to inequities that are produced through discourses of preparedness and resilience, whilst focusing on the situated, experiential, nature(s) of caring and being cared for in times of crisis. We particularly welcome contributions that explore the concept of ‘(over)flowing’ in relation to caring, affectivity, and sociotechnical-transformations in times of crisis.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Tuesday 16 July, 2024, -Paper short abstract:
In this study we explore caring practices amidst developing crises. We highlight the importance of interacting caring practices during crises, argue that such interactions cut through different layers and domains in healthcare and governance, and show that affectivities play a key role therein.
Paper long abstract:
Decision-making during crises is often described as a form of enacted sense-making. Considering the mindful aspects of decision-making during unexpected events, however, this perspective tends to leave more affective dimensions of governing health systems during crises implicit. Hence, in this paper we explore caring in different domains of healthcare and governance during an unfolding crisis, focusing on interactions between caring practices and affective dimensions of crisis governance.
We take as our ethnographic case-study the major 2021 flooding events in Dutch Limburg. We observed and interviewed actors in health care, crisis management and water management domains in Limburg, as well as citizens in the region. Moving back and forth between data and theory we zoomed-in on affectivities of caring and the interactions of caring practices in between these domains.
Whilst dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, regional healthcare organizations were suddenly exposed to (potential) consequences of flooding. Patients in several facilities, including a hospital, were evacuated. Professionals in different domains had to work together to deal with the uncertainties and the threats high-water levels posed to vulnerable people and the exposed river surroundings. In our analysis we stress that, even two years after the flooding-events in Limburg, specialists concerned with modelling the floods, advisors responsible for sharing knowledge on levee strengths, crisis managers who had to decide on evacuating citizens, or health care managers who had to care for their patients show that affectivities play a key role in their caring practices.
Paper short abstract:
During the global pandemic, the conceptualization of cleanliness changed. Building on initial empirical research into the professional landscape of cleaning, this paper delves into the experiences and viewpoints of stakeholders within the cleaning industry amid the pandemic's zenith in Germany.
Paper long abstract:
In the context of the global Covid-19 pandemic, the conceptualization of cleanliness underwent a significant transformation, becoming a paramount concern. This newfound emphasis on hygiene, framed as a measure of safety from viral threats, cast cleaning work into the spotlight as a vital, albeit often overlooked, component of daily life. In Germany, the critical role of cleaning was officially recognized, categorizing cleaning workers as 'essential'. Despite this classification, the visibility and acknowledgment for cleaning work remained minimal, underscoring a persistent undervaluation. Cleaning work, embedded within the broader spectrum of care and domestic labor, is marked by feminization, precarity, and marginalization, with a high representation of migrant workers.
Building on initial empirical research into the diverse professional landscape of cleaning, this paper delves into the experiences and viewpoints of stakeholders within the cleaning industry amid the pandemic's zenith in Germany. This exploration reveals that cleaning encompasses more than the mere removal of dirt and pathogens; it often embodies a caring and interpersonal dimension. Cleaners were confronted with the dual challenge of safeguarding their own health while acting as protectors against the virus for others, positioning their bodies as both potential vectors and barriers to disease transmission.
The focus of my analysis is on the emergent transformations, vulnerabilities, and dependencies within a crisis that has exacerbated the precarity faced by many actors of the cleaning Industry, which also profoundly influenced the management of spaces, the unseen forces within these environments (e.g., viruses) and the personal safety and health of individuals.
Paper short abstract:
The governance of environmental crises as states of exception further spoils an already stigmatised terrestrial. Through ethnography, I provide an alternative horizon of dark infrastructures of care that feature interdependencies and a precarious autonomy through the affective labor of volunteers.
Paper long abstract:
Environmental disasters and climate crises have been construed as exceptional events that require a governance of surveillance and control. Such practices of exception governance further stigmatise terrestrial territories that do not necessarily adhere to hegemonic ways of living. Embracing the (arti)fact that the climate calamity cannot so much be undone as that it requires a reactivation of common forms of living, I draw on feminist scholars in STS to provide an alternative horizon of, what I call, dark infrastructures. In my talk, I relay experiences and stories from my ethnographic field work in Rotterdam South. These stories show experiential and often conflictual interdependencies that nevertheless engender common matters of care. I discuss the materially constrained places in these stories as dark infrastructures of care: they provide a precarious autonomy built on affective volunteer labour.