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Paper short abstract:

This paper deals with the care homes crisis in Spain during the pandemic. It focuses on the elderly residents’ relatives claims for justice, which led to meaningful processes of political subjectivation. We argue that in this context relatives emerged as main agents of a politicization of care.

Paper long abstract:

The Covid-19 pandemic had a severe impact on the long-term care system in Spain, particularly affecting the care homes for the elderly. According to experts, care homes were politically and epidemiologically left aside, severely affecting the human rights of residents. In this context, their families/relatives reacted by organizing mobilizations and lawsuits against care homes managers and the government. They alleged discriminatory treatment of the elderly and violation of fundamental rights, and show the effects of long-lasting processes of disinvestment on public care services, as well as trends towards privatization. This paper deals with the care homes crisis in Spain from the perspective of the elderly residents’ relatives. It focuses on their claims for justice, which led to meaningful processes of political subjectivation. In line with the long-standing academic debate on politics and care in feminist theory, we argue that, in the context of the Covid-19 crisis, relatives emerged as main agents of a politicization of care, insofar as their demands publicly challenged the care homes model in Spain, they showed the excluding and discriminatory effects of inefficient measures taken by the authorities to respond to the pandemic, and called for an urgent and necessary transformation of the long-term care system in Spain.