Care Anthropology / Anthropology of Caring

13. Conclusion: Anthropology & Care Welcome to Module 13 of Transforming Lives through Care 🎯 Learning Goals By the end of this week, you should be able to:  Reflect on key themes and case studies from the subject.  Revisit and connect major anthropological concepts used to understand care.  Identify areas where you'd like to explore further or deepen your understanding. Recognise how this subject has transformed your thinking about everyday life . 🚦  Introduction Welcome to Week 12 of Transforming Lives through Care. This final week is all about reflection and revision. You’ve journeyed through many forms of care—across borders, generations, species, and institutions. This week gives you the space to look back on what you’ve learned, revisit what stood out, and consolidate your understanding of how care transforms lives—and how anthropology helps us make sen...

Welcome to Module 12 of Transforming Lives through Care . This is part of a course in the Anthropology of Care at La Trobe University. This week we explore the idea of self-care —a form of care that emerges not from institutions, but from community, resistance, and refusal. What happens when self-care becomes a political act? What does it mean to survive under conditions of neoliberal neglect? Drawing on applied and public anthropology, we consider care not just as a practice of support, but as a politics of solidarity and survival. 🎯 Learning Goals By the end of this week, you should be able to: Understand radical care as a response to neoliberalism and systemic neglect. Reflect on how care can function as collective survival and political resistance. Explore the “politics of refusal” in the context of self-care, solidarity, and everyday life. Apply anthropological insights to your own life: What might radical care look like for you? 🚦 Introduction Neoliberal s...

11. Neoliberal Care: From Welfare to Self-reliance Welcome to Module 11 of Transforming Lives through Care .  This week we turn our attention to neoliberal care —how care is reshaped when states withdraw from direct provision and individuals are expected to become self-reliant, responsible citizens. Neoliberal reforms reflect deeper changes in how care, personhood, and citizenship are understood. What happens to care when it is no longer a right, but a personal duty?  🎯 Learning Goals By the end of this week you should be able to Examine how neoliberal reforms reshape understandings of personhood, care, and citizenship. Critically reflect on the role of the state, family, and market in elder and disability care. Compare Dutch reforms to Australian care frameworks, especially in the wake of austerity and marketisation. 🚦 Introduction Neoliberalism : Although this week’s reading focuses primarily on care policy, it is also about changing ideas of...

🇨🇦 Canada Canada is a vast country in northern North America, known for its multicultural society and history of colonialism. While often presented as a modern liberal democracy, Canada’s formation and development have been deeply shaped by the displacement, marginalisation, and governance of Indigenous peoples. Inuit women and children at summer camp, Fullerton Harbour, Nunavut , August 1906 ( Guardian ) 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Indigenous Canada Two main groups who are considered Indigenous to Canada are the  Inuit  and the  First Nations . These groups have distinct languages, histories, territories, and relationships to the Canadian state. 🔍 Comparison Chart Category Inuit First Nations Used to be known as… Eskimo (now outdated and considered offensive) Indian (outdated; still used legally in the Indian Act but not preferred) Region Arctic regions : Nunavut, northern Quebec , Labrado...

This worksheet--Governmentality and Care--is part of the subject  Transforming Lives through Care  at La Trobe University. The aim of this worksheet is to develop a deeper understanding of governmentality by recognising, applying, and critiquing the concept in relation to care. Introduction: Governmentality  As you know,  governmentality  is a mentality that developed in the modern era. In this modern era, people are now rendered as citizens. Citizens should be allowed to live happy, productive lives to a ripe old age. Governments create policies to allow this. Governments try to help citizens live happy, healthy lives. But to do this, statistics and a new way of knowing the population through statistics is required. At the same time, docile minds and productive bodies are created. So we have a new kind of person and a new kind of subjectivity. Recognising "Governmentality" First, see if you can recognise when a scholar is applying this concept. Consider the pa...

Welcome to Module 10 of Transforming Lives through Care , a first-year Anthropology subject at La Trobe University.  In this module, we anlayse welfare and care in terms of governmentality . The basic idea is that modern systems of care though non-violent, actually create greater control over the population. This is not overtly violent but it is more effective. 🎯 Learning Goals By the end of this week, you should be able to: explain the idea of  governmentality use  governmentality  to analyse caring practices  critique the idea of  governmentality 🚦  Introduction Governmentality is a mentality. Most people are unaware that they have this mentality. Although this mentality has only emerged in Europe's modern period, it seems to us to normal and natural. We think that governments should help people live long and happy lives. To achieve this we expect governments not to control us but to take  care   for of us. We, in turn, make ourselves g...