9. Carescape: Structure & Agency

 Welcome to Module 9 of Transforming Lives through Care. This is part of a course in the Anthropology of Care at La Trobe University.

In earlier modules, we focused on care in informal settings (such as the home and family) and through informal mechanisms (such as kinship, ritual and reciprocity). In this and the following modules, we shift our attention to professional care in formal settings. It is 'professional' because carers are trained, follow recognised standards and are paid for their work. And it is 'formal' because the care is organised through institutions such as hospitals, aged-care facilities, government agencies and private organisations, rather than being provided through family or community relationships alone.

What is the difference? Consider this story from Aya Yasutake's book on caring for dementia patients in Japan. A woman explained to Yasutake:

 If my dad has dementia, I can't tell him he needs to go to an aged Home. I have to ask the nurse to tell him he needs to go to an age home.

The daughter, in this example, provides informal care. The nurse, by contrast, provides formal care. The daughter needs the aura of an outside professional to say what could be one of the most difficult things in her life.

🎯 Learning Goals

By the end of this week, you should be able to:

• define "Carescape"
• define and identify the concepts of structure & agency
• define and identify the concepts of femminised and racialised labour

🚦 Introduction

The word "Carescape" refers to the larger structures within which care is provided. This week we focus on migrant aged care workers. The relevant structures are:

• economic; e.g. the division between developed and developing nations; 
• legal; e.g. laws governing migration and labour in developed nations; 
• social; e.g. the responsibilty of Taiwanese daughters-in-law to care for her husbands parents
• cultural; e.g. ideas about care giving as essentiallly feminine and Southeast Asia.

Against this backdrop we look at the agency of care workers; their ability to create a life for themselves. 

📚 Recommended Materials

Read my blog summary of the Lan's "Deferential Surrogates & Professional Others".

Read this abridged version of Lan's "Deferential Surrogates & Professional Others".

📘 Essential Materials

Read the complete version of Lan's "Deferential Surrogates & Professional Others". Lan: 

Taiwanese brokers seek village women to meet the servile image of “traditional women” and to serve as “deferential surrogates” for female employers...migrant as professional others”. The pattern in Japan, on the contrary, defines care as social entitlement and holds the state responsible for supervising quality care for senior citizens. 

Summary: Lan shows how Taiwanese expect migrant care workers to act as deferential family substitutes, while in Japan they are trained as professional “others” in providing standardized care. The paper reveals cultural differences in how aged care is imagined and embodied.

Watch  Monika Winarnita's presentation on researching migrants who work in Australian aged care. You can check out the slides to Monika Winarnita's presentation here. 

🗣️ Interactive tasks

Complete the Migrant Aged Care Work worksheet.

🏁 Conclusion

Summary

The carescape concept encapsulates the structures and agency involved in work caring for the young, disabled, and elderly.

Significance

The carescape framework helps us see care work not just as a personal or moral act, but as something shaped by larger social, economic, legal and cultural forces. It explains why care work in Taiwan, Japan, or Australia is often carried out by Southeast Asian women—and why those women are imagined to be “naturally” suited to it.

By analysing how this labour becomes feminised and racialised, we begin to understand how inequalities are structured into the very systems that claim to support human wellbeing. At the same time, the concept of agency invites us to see migrant care workers not only as exploited, but as creative actors navigating and reshaping their worlds within those constraints.

What’s Next

Next week we’ll  consider the impact his feminisation of care has on fathers caring for their disabled children. 

🔎 Further Research

Watch La Trobe University | Aged Care. What are the main problems the migrant health care workers describe? How do these experiences compare to those described by Lan.

 Read: Manchester, H., & Willatt, A. (2024). “Towards care-full co-design with older adults: A feminist posthuman praxis”. What does “good care” for older people mean in different cultural or design contexts? Product designers often treat older people as just “lacking.” This article uses feminist posthumanism to argue for more ethical, inclusive co-design that acknowledges older people’s real, complex lives—including their relationships with non-human things like devices, texts, and environments.

❓Research Question

Australia and Japan are increasingly relying on migrants to work in aged care. Compare and contrast their lives and work working experience using any 3 of the following concepts: 

• structure - agency
• race (racialised work)
• gender (gendered work)
• kinship
• gemeinschaft (community) & gesellschaft (society).
• Essentialism & stereotypes
• Reciprocity & Exchange