Socialising care work. A new brochure on "caring cities"

In May of this year, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation published a brochure that presents the concept of caring cities, which has become particularly effective in Spain and Latin America. The brochure, edited by Barbara Fried and Alex Wischnewski, is particularly helpful for those interested in politics because it is written by people who are themselves involved in this field. We are presenting it so that even more people can find it and become curious about the concept, but also because it highlights current open questions regarding the 'caring cities' approach. The brochure can be ordered free of charge here: https://www.rosalux.de/publikation/id/52058/care-arbeit-vergesellschaften. An initial orientation on the topic can also be found on the website https://sorgende-staedte.org/, which brings together contributions from foundation publications on the topic.

The brochure consists of three main sections. In the first section, the authors explain the potential of the 'caring city' concept. They note the tendency of a double privatisation in neoliberal capitalism. On the one hand, social infrastructure such as care facilities has become a field of capital investment; on the other hand, the state's tendency to withdraw from care tasks has led to an increasing burden on care workers, mostly women: by worsening working conditions in care jobs and by family care workers having to fill the resulting gaps. This leads to an overburdening of care workers, a shortage of skilled labour and the shifting of care tasks at the expense of the most vulnerable in society.

This double privatisation should now be countered by a double de-privatisation: On the one hand, profit-oriented care companies must be replaced by public, democratically controlled services; on the other hand, space should be created for collective, self-organised forms of care. Because care work is attributed to women in particular, it is also about feminist socialisation.

The brochure refers positively to the concept of revolutionary realpolitik, which is also the basis of the Care Revolution: Immediate relief for people in care relationships, strengthening the ability to act and a utopian surplus - how could care be organised in a needs-oriented way? - are also goals. In order to achieve such an effect, entry projects into the caring city must be large enough: small scene projects are not enough. Ultimately, the aim is to transcend the boundaries set by capitalism. As a further building block, this requires as many people as possible to be actively involved in the change process in order to gain the necessary strength and to utilise the scope of the local state, in which left-wing majorities can be achieved, in order to build up the corresponding infrastructures.

The second part cites examples from various Spanish cities. These include the vilas veïnas ("superblocks") set up in Barcelona, where urban care services are replacing private providers, the infrastructure is geared towards pedestrian accessibility and self-organised neighbourhood projects are being strengthened. All of the examples presented are, in themselves, entirely compatible with capitalism, but could certainly be entry-level projects in the sense described above. The variety of ideas alone is inspiring and it is easy to imagine how they can change and empower everyday life and facilitate further steps towards change. However, the article also describes two conditions for success in Spain: firstly, at the start of the financial crisis, there was a strong social movement with squat occupations, resistance to forced evictions and local organisation in committees and, starting from there, left-wing local electoral alliances that saw themselves as part of the social movement and controlled by it. Whether the road to the caring city can be travelled without these preconditions - unfortunately, this question is neither answered nor posed.

In the third section, which takes up almost half of the brochure, the Raumstation collective presents its activities in Berlin-Wedding: For six months, the activists investigated a neighbourhood for supportive care infrastructure, held discussions with those working in the facilities and described the importance of the services in the relatively poor district, which is dominated by migrants, and the obstacles that are nevertheless placed in their way. The result was a critical mapping of the neighbourhood on the one hand, and a city walk on the other, in which the employees' demands were also presented.

This part is an interesting addition to the Spanish examples, as it shows that care infrastructure is not just facilities such as daycare centres or care services, but also cafés or self-help groups. In its work, the collective "only" carried out such a mapping and did not start with the survey of care needs and the (self-)organisation of the people living in the neighbourhood; at least this is not mentioned in the text. This does not make the section any less useful; the brochure calls itself a "toolbox" in the subtitle, and the tool presented by the space station is an exciting one. However, a categorisation would have been helpful: How can the tool be used by a group that is planning an entry-level project into the caring city in the sense that the first part of the brochure formulates the claim?

Particularly from the point of view of usefulness, I would have been pleased if more space had been given to the 'Sorge ins Parkcenter' project presented at the end, in which at least some of the creators are involved: This is about the plan to turn a largely vacant shopping centre in Berlin-Treptow into a care centre modelled on the vilas veïnas rather than putting it to subsequent private use. In door-to-door talks, a 'kiosk of care' and open plenums, attempts are made to involve those living in the district in the political process; the active members of the initiative know: "(It needs) sustainable alliances of activists and neighbourhood initiatives, but it also needs allies in the institutions." (p.83) The brochure would have been rounded off by the experiences and thoughts of the campaigners on whether and how the Spanish experience can be transferred to Berlin 2024. But that can be found out in real time, possibly even by taking part. The website, which is still under construction, can be found here: https://www.sorgezentren.de/. There is now also a supra-regional association of care centre initiatives. You can join their telegram group here: https://t.me/+YzXMBXL1bJI4ZTMy