Datum
02. Juli – 03. Juli 2026
Workshop at University of Lucerne, Switzerland
Call for Papers
Workshop: De-/valuations in paid care work
University of Lucerne, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology
July 2–3, 2026
Organized by Madhurilata Basu, Jürg Bühler, Sandra Bärnreuther
Research on care work has often paid attention to questions of value and valuation: be it the
description of care work as a labor of love, empathy, and concern (Rose 1983), as a source of
surplus value (Federici 2012), as a commodity embedded in the global economy (Hochschild
2000, Parreñas 2000), or as a foundation for developing alternative ethical and political theories
(Gilligan 1982; Noddings 1984; Held 2006, Tronto 1993). While some studies examine
different understandings and practices of good care alongside the tensions and contradictions
they produce (Kleinman 2009, Smith-Morris 2018, Stevenson 2014), much of the research on
paid care work emphasizes issues of deskilling, devaluation, and the extraction of value (e.g.,
John and Wichterich 2023). The gendering of care work as female, and its links to domestic
and bodily labor, are shown to be crucial in understanding the exploitation and marginalization
of care workers, although there are notable differences across various groups (Cohen and
Wolkowitz 2018, Ray 2019).
The valuation and devaluation of care occur through complex processes, including ongoing
negotiations with larger economic and societal structures. Given the highly ambiguous nature
of these valuations, it is easy to overlook that care workers themselves assign meaning, moral
significance, and value to their work, often in ways that may differ from popular and scholarly
descriptions and assessments. Understanding these self-perceptions is essential, even though
care workers’ voices often remain unheard. Tracing intricate processes of valuation and
devaluation by care workers and other actors involved in paid care work is therefore crucial for
understanding how care work is experienced and shaped over time.
This workshop aims to examine valuation practices related to paid care work, emphasizing the
perspectives of various actors, including caregivers, members of care institutions (such as
management, educators, and doctors), and care recipients. We follow Dussauge et al. (2015) in
viewing value(s) not as “prefixed entit[ies] which explain […] action” but treat “the genesis,
articulation, dispute, and settling of what comes to count as values as matters for empirical
investigation and explanation” (ibid., 6). Through an in-depth analysis of the making of values
in care practice, we seek to understand processes of de-/valuation of care work, skills, degrees,
health, and workers themselves. Importantly, power is not absent in this approach; to the
contrary: “By studying the making of values traditionally seen as belonging to different
domains we can see power struggles over which values are to be dominant, the making of
boundaries between values (that may become made as separate), and when different values are
made commensurable” (ibid.). The workshop highlights the conflicting concerns and stakes
involved in providing care, as well as how valuations are actively produced, transformed, and
maintained.
We invite ethnographically oriented scholars studying paid care work across various fields and
regions to join this workshop. Possible topics for papers might include: discourses of de-
/valuation in educational institutions and workplaces; rationalizations of different labor
regimes; relationships among different groups of care workers and other professional groups;
changes in workforce composition; labor struggles and unionization efforts; the introduction
of new technologies; or care work and the platform economy.
Please send your abstract (up to 500 words) and author biography (up to 100 words) by
January 16, 2026, to madhurilata.basu@unilu.ch. We may have limited funds to support travel
and accommodation costs for a few participants. Please indicate in your application if you
require financial assistance.