Troubling Gifts of Care

Vulnerable Persons and Threatening Exchanges in Chicago's Home Care Industry

Bibliographic Data

ID2288558
AuthorsElana D Buch (0000-0003-4502-7963, Department of Anthropology University of Iowa, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume28
Issue4
Pages599-615
Publication date2014-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMedical Anthropology Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0745-5194 • E-ISSN: 1548-1387
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/maq.12126
PMID25331658
OpenAlexW2104297952
LanguageEN
Citations received23
References cited25

By tracing the transformations of troubling exchanges in paid home care, this article examines how differently positioned individuals strive to build caring relations within potentially restrictive regimes of care. In paid home care in Chicago, older adults and their workers regularly participate in exchanges of money, time, and material goods. These gifts play a crucial role in building good care relationships that sustain participants' moral personhood. Amid widespread concern about vulnerable elders, home care agencies compete in a crowded marketplace by prohibiting these exchanges, even as they depend on them to strengthen relationships. Supervisors thus exercise discretion, sometimes reclassifying gift exchanges as punishable thefts. In this context, the commodification of care did not lead to the actual elimination of gift relations, but rather transformed gift relations into a suspicious and troublesome source of value

Business · Elder Abuse and Neglect · Homelessness and Social Issues · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Medicine · Nursing · Psychology · Gerontology

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