6533b7d9fe1ef96bd126ce32

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Doing gendered and (dis)embodied work. Care work in the context of medico-managerial welfare state

subject

description

Whether and how technology-driven managerial reforms affect the field of human service work is a timely question for social sciences. In an increasingly technology-assisted working-life, material conditions such as one’s age and gender may be losing their significance as signifiers of professional identity. Welfare service work is traditionally understood as feminine work that comprises of embodied, situational and social practices of care work. Over the past few decades, public management reforms have called for reassessment of welfare service workers’ occupational skills through practices of medico-managerial service management and occupational accountability. As a result, workers technical competence and occupational accountability in technology-assisted service delivery are increasingly valued over their skills in embodied care and emotion work that have traditionally been viewed as a feminine domain of care work. This article is based on an interview study (n = 23) that assesses female workers’ conce...