1. Understanding Care through the Lens of the Care Diamond
2. Using Intersectionality and Multi-scalar Lenses to understand Care Work
3. The Case of South Korea 

This lecture examines paid care work and the market for care from a feminist political-economic perspective. We will begin with the concept of the care diamond to understand and contextualize how care is negotiated, provided and delivered through social, cultural and political-economic processes by four key institutions – the family, state, market and community/NGOs. The paper by Shahra Razavi (see below) is a good introductory reading to understand this concept because not only does she explain how these key institutions configure to provide care, but she also situates the care diamond in a development context. Care work is universally and culturally undervalued. The undervaluation is partly because of care’s historical and cultural association with women’s unpaid domestic labour. As a result, paid care work has been historically marginalized in the labour market, relegated to women, immigrants, and racialized workers. Because care work involves complex physical, functional, interpersonal, and emotional components, it shapes and is shaped by the social positionings of the caregivers and care recipients, which are also reflected in broader societal and global structures. For this reason, we must understand care and care work from intersectional and multi-scalar lenses. We will examine how gender, race and citizenship status intersect with care work and how this reflects and reproduce global inequalities and power relations. Fiona Williams (2018) provides a useful guide for understanding care and care work from intersectional and multi-scalar lenses. Finally, we use the case of South Korea to show how the care diamond in that country is configured and change over time. The working paper by Peng, Cha and Moon (2021) offers a case study of South Korea’s care policies and care infrastructure. It shows how the government’s care policies influence the market for care and its implications for paid care workers.