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21 - The Fissured Welfare State

Care Work, Democracy, and Public-Private Governance

from Part V - Labor and Democracy Sectoral Case Studies: Platform Workers, Higher Education, and the Care Industry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2022

Angela B. Cornell
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Mark Barenberg
Affiliation:
Columbia University, New York
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Summary

This chapter argues that the origins of the worsening exploitation of American labor lie in the social division of labor, in particular the rise of the care economy – the greatest factor in the growth of low-wage work. The care economy was organized politically at a deeper institutional level than labor market changes of the last forty years, on which pro-labor scholars and activists have often focused. Since the post-war years, care work has been governed at a distance, its terms set by the public sector and its administration carried out privately. The growth of care work under such conditions pits workers and clients against each other, but simultaneously creates the possibility of solidarity.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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