Recognising the Time—Space Dimensions of Care: Caringscapes and Carescapes

TLDR

Geographical research on care relationships increasingly recognizes that time is as crucial as space, prompting extensions of the caringscapes/carescapes framework to integrate temporal dynamics. The study argues that spatial analyses of care must explicitly incorporate time and proposes investigating time‑space links between policy processes and individual behaviours as a promising research direction. The authors review existing efforts to merge time and space in geographical studies of care, highlighting the role of temporal dynamics in social relationships of care.

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the geographical analysis of care relationships. It argues that concern with space needs to be augmented by a more explicit attention to the importance of time to caring. The paper discusses the importance of time to social relationships of care, and reviews existing attempts to integrate time with space in geographical research. The paper reflects on and extends the ‘caringscapes/carescapes’ framework for research on informal care proposed in a recent book and earlier publications by myself and colleagues. It suggests that exploring the time—space links between the processes producing policies and services and those affecting individual behaviours is a promising avenue for future research.