Socialising care - for a climate-friendly future!

by Liska Beulshausen and Kirsten Dohmwirth

We were part of the care strand at the climate and socialisation conference and looked at socialisation in the care sector for a climate-friendly future. We would like to develop and pursue this topic in the network. Here you can find out why climate, care and socialisation should be linked and what we discussed at the conference.

Socialisation in the care sector as a strategy for climate justice

The connection between climate justice and the socialisation of care is not necessarily obvious. The reduction in_{CO2 emissions} through the socialisation of hospital groups or care homes is relatively small compared to the socialisation of mobility or energy. And shouldn't care actually be a cross-cutting issue in all socialisation debates? At the start of planning the "Let's Socialise" conference - socialisation as a strategy for climate justice, we therefore also discussed whether care should be a separate strand of the conference at all.

In the end, however, we decided in favour of the care strand, as care must be a central component of a movement that considers climate justice and socialisation together. We are convinced that a good life for all in a society that does not continue to destroy its livelihoods is only possible if people are cared for, supported and secure and connected to each other through sustainable caring relationships. We therefore believe that care must be taken into account in every climate and socialisation campaign. The question of how everyone's needs can be met should always be at the centre of emancipatory projects.

As the concept of care is currently used very differently in debates, we would first like to define what we are referring to when we talk about care. In our understanding, care includes care work, i.e. activities in which people directly look after the needs of other people, e.g. in the areas of health, nursing, assistance, education, training, housing or housework and the associated planning ("mental load") and affective work as well as caring for oneself. Secondly, we understand care as the awareness or attitude that describes the fact that it is existential for people to give and experience care and to be involved in caring relationships. In these relationships, everyone's needs should be recognised and taken into account. A caring attitude also encompasses relationships with the non-human world.

Climate-just socialisation means feminist socialisation

Care work is predominantly carried out by women and queer people - and for the most part unpaid. The high level of unpaid care work often leads to overwork, financial dependency and poverty, especially in old age. Those who can afford it individually and/or see no alternative outsource care work in the household, childcare or nursing to mostly migrant care workers. Many care jobs are still poorly paid and working conditions are almost always precarious, which is exacerbated by a shortage of skilled labour. It is foreseeable that this situation will become even more acute, as demand in the care sector, for example, will increase significantly over the next few years and many carers will retire over the same period.

The ongoing climate crisis is also having an impact on the fulfilment of care work and will exacerbate the care crisis. On the one hand, the consequences of climate change will increase the need for care work if, for example, circulatory problems increase due to heat or the psychological consequences of land loss due to flooding or similar have to be absorbed. At the same time, the conditions under which care work is carried out are becoming more difficult: even in emergency shelters, people have to be cooked for, comforted and cared for; destroyed infrastructure has to be replaced by interim solutions.

The climate crisis and the care crisis must therefore be considered together. And not only are the consequences interdependent, the triggers of the two crises are also the same: In capitalism, the exploitation of care work is structural, just like the exploitation of natural resources. Both are regarded as permanently available resources that can be utilised indefinitely. Our current economic system thus destroys the conditions for the reproduction of human life, all living beings and ecosystems. Every society is dependent on care work, just as every society is dependent on the availability of fresh air, clean water and fertile soil.

We are all affected by the care and climate crises. However, this is not to the same extent: both in relation to care and in relation to the consequences of climate change, the complexity and multi-layered nature of those affected must be taken into account. The effects of the climate crisis are already being felt much more strongly in the global South than in the global North, even though the latter is the main cause. This is exacerbated by the way in which we organise or outsource care here. Due to the disparity between wealth and poverty in the Global South and Eastern Europe, people are coming to Western Europe to perform care work under precarious conditions. As a result, there is a lack of people in the countries of origin who take on care work there and social resilience decreases. Crises can no longer be cushioned by sustainable care networks. But the climate crisis is also affecting groups in the Global North to varying degrees: who lives and works in air-conditioned buildings? Which people can "cope" with temperatures of over 35°? Who is covered by the social security system? Whose needs are taken seriously and what is considered worth protecting? The extent to which people are affected depends on socio-economic conditions, gender, race and mental and physical health.

For a climate-just and desirable future, care must be at the centre of society

We therefore advocate a society in which everyone has access to a well-developed and democratically organised care infrastructure. Such a society can manage with fewer goods and individual savings in order to fulfil the needs of the individual. Because if care work is organised collectively, there is no longer any need to think in terms of private households: The washing machine can be shared and cooking can be done together in large kitchens. Appliances that are only needed on certain occasions can be made available to a larger community. Access to services is not regulated by the purse. Such a society is worth living in, as everyone is cared for and can contribute and look after themselves according to their abilities and needs. Basic needs are placed at the centre of social attention.

If we want to socialise the whole issue of care, then care must be seen as a social responsibility - regardless of gender or other attributions such as income or race. To achieve this, we need to focus on the framework conditions of unpaid care work just as much as hospitals or care homes. In addition to the de-privatisation of facilities and the de-privatisation of invisible care work in households, socialisation also means the democratisation of care.

This means access to care infrastructures for all, democratic decision-making and organisational structures and collective experimentation with care practices in self-organised care settings. The struggle for all these changes can be understood as revolutionary realpolitik, because concrete measures will directly improve the conditions for people in care relationships and make a different future more imaginable and organisable.

Practical examples of the socialisation of care

We can already find concrete examples of such practices in the here and now. A lot has happened in recent years, particularly in the area of paid care work. One example is the Kooperative Autonomía platform from Zurich: cleaners from different backgrounds came together in 2021 and founded a cooperative. This form of self-determination over everyday working life and conditions is an impressive example of how care work, in this case cleaning, can be socialised on a small scale in a private sector environment.

There are also examples in the hospital sector that counter the existing system with alternative participatory designs. Due to the privatisation processes in inpatient and outpatient healthcare in recent decades, working conditions have deteriorated extremely. As a counter-reaction, activists are campaigning for the remunicipalisation of hospitals threatened with closure or have successfully demonstrated with employees for better working conditions, as in the Berlin hospital movement. District health centres, which are currently being set up in various cities, show what socialisation in the healthcare sector can look like. These combine an internal structure with as little hierarchy as possible, needs-based care in poor neighbourhoods and political self-empowerment.

Local initiatives of this kind can respond directly to local needs. This approach is therefore very promising and feminist projects that are active in local politics currently serve as inspiration for many activists in the scene. The focus is particularly on Spanish-speaking countries, where the caring city is and has been implemented in various cities as a feminist approach to the socialisation of care. Concrete measures include the Care Bocks in Bogota, the package of measures for the democratisation of care designed by the left-wing city government of Barcelona en Comú and the Verdragon, a district centre for anti-racism and ecological projects. The Caring City places care (needs), participation and care for the planet at the centre by creating needs-oriented, local and outreach support structures.

In Germany, the Sorge ins Parkcenter group was founded in Berlin based on these examples. It is committed to socialising a largely vacant former shopping centre in Treptow and converting it into a care centre. Instead of partially demolishing the shopping mall and replacing it with new office buildings, the aim is to create neighbourhood meeting points and local amenities that actually respond to the needs of local residents. A campaign initiated by the group aims to raise awareness that local care structures are essential for a socio-ecological transformation and to demonstrate care centres as a concrete way in which care can be practically located, experienced and democratised.

Let's socialise - Let's care

At the "let's socialise - socialisation as a strategy for climate justice" conference, these concrete and local approaches were particularly well received. Participants in the care strand of the conference addressed the question of how the care campaign could be supported in the park centre and transferred to other cities or rural areas in order to bring the topic of collective care to life in different places. They discussed how care work is organised within care collectives and political groups and how it can be made more visible and shared.

In addition to the debate on caring cities, resistance to the flat rate system in German hospitals was also a topic of discussion. If we want to socialise hospitals, this is a starting point for banishing the profit logic from the sector and thus persuading private providers to withdraw from the sector. The idea here is as follows: First abolish the flat rate system, then socialise it.

There was also an exchange of views on how the importance of a solidary society that supports caring relationships can be communicated. On the one hand, this involved the importance of the collective organisation of care tasks and care facilities for globally shareable lifestyles and the strengthening of this discussion within the climate movement. On the other hand, it was discussed which narratives can be used to show that the major changes required can mean a gain in quality of life if they are organised in a spirit of solidarity.

During the conference, many suggestions for a further step towards the socialisation of care were collected and perspectives were made clear. It was also enriching to experience how carefully and attentively the participants and speakers of the care strand treated each other. Care as an attitude was lived and this already gives a small glimpse of what a joint organisation of care could look like. In order to pursue the vision of feminist socialisation, we identified, discussed and practised various concrete and theoretical approaches. Whether against the flat rate system, for care centres or new narratives - socialising for climate justice means socialising in a feminist way!