Between neoliberalism and cultural conservatism: spatial divisions and multiplications of hospice labor in the United States

This article offers a critical geographic understanding of hospice work in Seattle Washington, and the US generally. It highlights the spatial divisions of labor between home and institutions in hospice care, as well as divisions within the home (where the majority of hospice occurs). It further shows how these divisions produce multiplications of labor for women carers in the home. I interpret these divisions and multiplications of labor as manifestations of neoliberal welfare state restructuring. A certain cultural conservatism, however, is also potentially reproduced by these geographies. These interpretations situate hospice work in a social theoretical context, and look beyond neoliberalism as the singular rightward keel of social policy.