Geographies of care: spaces,practices, experiences

Questions of care appear to be catching the imagination of researchers across several areas of human geography at present (see Parr 2003).We can note, for instance, the growing body of work that explores the significance of care in particular settings. Milligan (2000) has written of the home-space in this regard, while Twigg's (2000) work on bathing and intimate care is similarly attentive to domestic spatiality. The complex material and psycho-social dimensions of care in the home emerge clearly in these accounts; we see that despite benevolent intentions, the quality and consistency of such care is variable and its delivery often emotionally demanding (see Allan and Crow 1989). Other research has focused on mental health care environments (Kearns and Joseph 2000; Parr 2000; Philo 1997; Pinfold 2000), hospices (Brown 2003; Brown and Colton 2001), hospitals (Allen 2001) and alternative medicine centres (Wiles and Rosenberg 2001; Williams 2000). Within these studies we see how relations and practices of care—things such as listening, feeding, changing clothes and administering medication—are implicated in the production of particular social spaces. The care-taking tasks which bring people together in these settings involve both physical and emotional labour, and often depend disproportionately upon the commitment of women (Daly and Lewis 1998; Finch and Groves 1983; Ungerson 1990).