Journal article
Troubling gifts of care: vulnerable persons and threatening exchanges in Chicago's home care industry
Medical anthropology quarterly, Vol.28(4), pp.599-615
12/2014
DOI: 10.1111/maq.12126
PMCID: PMC4576839
PMID: 25331658
Abstract
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.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Troubling gifts of care: vulnerable persons and threatening exchanges in Chicago's home care industry
- Creators
- Elana D Buch - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Medical anthropology quarterly, Vol.28(4), pp.599-615
- DOI
- 10.1111/maq.12126
- PMID
- 25331658
- PMCID
- PMC4576839
- NLM abbreviation
- Med Anthropol Q
- ISSN
- 0745-5194
- eISSN
- 1548-1387
- Grant note
- T32 AG000117 / NIA NIH HHS T32-AG000117 / NIA NIH HHS
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 12/2014
- Academic Unit
- Anthropology
- Record Identifier
- 9984269246502771
Metrics
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