The Tensions between Process Time and Clock Time in Care-Work

Abstract

Implicit or explicit in work on care and caring has been the issue of time. Notwithstanding this fact, however, time itself has not been sufficiently problematized. In the first part of this paper, the concept of process time is introduced and its relevance for an understanding of care-work is suggested. Drawing on data from a qualitative study of day nurseries in Sweden, the second part of the paper explores various tensions and conflicts that (can) arise in this type of care-work due to the intermeshing of clock/linear time and process time. The implications, in relation to present day economic cuts, are also briefly discussed.