Care Loops Under One Roof : Multigenerational Living, Grandmothers, and Intergenerational Puzzles of Caring Responsibilities in the Czech Republic
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| Year of publication | 2022 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
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| Description | This chapter explores the local care loops in the Czech Republic, a country that experienced radical changes in family policies and in the organization of childcare after the fall of Communism in 1989. Drawing upon 119 in-depth interviews with representatives of three generations living in multigenerational housing, the chapter analyses the daily practices of care and dealing with caring responsibilities. Particularly, with its focus on the experiences of multigenerational households, the chapter illuminates the spatial dimension of childcare. The aim is to answer the following questions: How is the care organised in multigenerational living? and How are care practices shaped by co-residence? It traces the movement and mobility within the home (such as passing from one floor to another to watch the kids) and in its environs (picking up the children from kindergarten) in order to highlight the never-ending small mobility, or care loops within the home and its close environment. These small movements are interpreted in the wider social and cultural context as well as in relation to the individual and family strategies outside the home (especially in the labour market) that are motivated by the effort to be at home with children (retirement strategies, strategies of making shifts, etc.). |
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