Work, workfare, work/life balance and an ethic of care

TLDR

In this paper, I build on Paul Cloke’s (2002) argument that an ethical stance is needed in human geography and argue that reinstating an ethic of care requires wide‑reaching changes in organizational practices and responsibilities across spatial scales. I assess the implications of changes in Britain’s labour market, New Labour welfare assumptions, and gender positions, and consider how an ethic of care would affect everyday practices within academia. I show that an individualistic ethos dominates the labour market and welfare state, undermining collective welfare and an ethic of care within the broader neoliberal hegemony.

Abstract

In this paper, I build on Paul Cloke's (2002) provocative argument about the necessity of developing an ethical stance in human geography. I do this, however, through an assessment of the implications of a number of changes in the nature of the labour market in Great Britain, in the assumptions that lie behind welfare provision under New Labour and in the position of women and men in Britainrather than through an emphasis on the Christian values that infused Cloke's argument. I show how the dominance of an individualistic ethos pervades both the labour market and the welfare state, undermining notions of collective welfare and an ethic of care, within the wider context of the hegemony of a neoliberal ideology in global as well as national politics. If an ethic of care is to be (re)instituted, it will demand wide-reaching changes in the ways in which organizations and institutions operate at a range of spatial scales as well as new sets of responsibilities towards co-workers, members of households and the wider public. I conclude by considering some of the implications of such an ethic for everyday practices within the academy.