EXTENDED SUMMARY

With the increase in the care needs of individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic process, discussions on care services have been on the agenda throughout the world. On the one hand, the fact that unpaid care work became visible again with the pandemic as the main determinant of gender inequalities, and on the other hand, the working conditions of care workers, which are considered essential workers of the society, aggravated during the epidemic process, reminded once again the importance of care work within the scope of social care services. When we talk about the care crisis today, we are talking about the devaluation of care work on the one hand and the crisis of the marketization of social care services on the other. In this context, not only unpaid care work but also paid care work emphasizes the importance of re-establishing the social reproduction area where the destruction of capitalism is experienced, with an egalitarian and fair approach; universal social care services stand in an urgent place for the construction of social reproduction. Universal social care services are closely related to how we envision a social transformation in response to the destruction of capitalism and the emergence of the care crisis. This article discusses the importance of demanding social care services as a universal public service, which has started to resonate in the field of social policy and social services, in the context of Turkey’s changing care regime and care labour context.

Universal social care services occupy an important place in the care regime debates in Turkey. The long-term care policy domain is going through a profound transformation process due to rapid population ageing and changes in family patterns in Turkey. The field of long-term care in Turkey has gone through a rapid transformation process, particularly in the last decades. While the long-term care field is being marketized with increasing momentum, the capacity of the care policies to respond to the needs of the elderly population is controversial. In this picture, whereas one of the important elements of this discussion is to render public social care services widespread, another issue is to provide good working conditions for care workers in social care services. In Turkey’s transforming care regime, the approach of care workers working in long-term care institutions to care labour has a guiding quality when thinking about universal social care services.

Care is a relational concept, and care work includes emotional and psychological burdens and relational processes in this context. This study attempts to define care work within its relationality and boundaries from the perspective of care workers working in the field of social care. The research’s findings are based on a qualitative study of in-depth interviews with 11 care workers employed by public, municipal, and private long-term care facilities. It is thereby discussed what social care professionals mean by the word “care,” what they believe the boundaries of care work to be, and how they see themselves in the job market. An important element to focus on here is that the reference point when defining paid care work is unpaid care work. When we consider paid and unpaid care work from the perspective of social reproduction, it can be said that care relations in social care institutions find meaning by associating and comparing paid care work with unpaid care work provided within the family. The importance of the relational elements of social care comes to the surface in the stories of care workers working in social care services as a field of social reproduction.

When care workers are asked about good care relationships, they attribute a positive meaning to care work given in the family as a response. This makes it easier to define care work, which includes physical and psychological difficulties as a professional, as a valuable job for care workers. It can be said that there is no easy way to draw the boundaries of care work. Mainly, home-based care workers reflect in their narratives that they deliver tasks outside of their job descriptions. At this point, this phenomenon reveals the relational dimension of care work and the difficulties of drawing its boundaries in the context of emerging needs.

The findings of our research underline the significance of providing post-pandemic universal social care services and improving the working conditions of care workers while also highlighting the significance of making paid care labour valuable to increase social welfare. Post-COVID-19 social care services and paid care labour are likely to become more critical as key areas for the construction of social reproduction. At this point, the definition of social care in the light of the daily practices of care workers, questioning its boundaries, and addressing questions such as good care and good working conditions seem to determine the field of social reproduction and the future of social care services.