Shopping malls to care centres - how does feminist socialisation work?

On 20 May,Sorge ins Parkcenter, Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie, the Veranstaltungs-AG in the Care Revolution network and Solidarisch Sorgen e.V. invited people to an online event. At this event, Barbara Fried presented the 'Care in the Park Centre' campaign. The organisers were delighted that the event was well received. Matthias Neumann shares his impressions of the event.

The campaign aims to ensure that the Park-Center, a shopping centre in south-east Berlin that is around two-thirds empty, is converted into a care centre. The issue here is that there is a fundamental lack of infrastructure such as daycare centres, meeting places where no money has to be spent, doctors, etc. The aim is to counteract this lack. This shortage is to be counteracted, while at the same time non-profit, low-hierarchy or non-hierarchical services are to be strengthened. Such a care centre would therefore not only close a gap in the provision of care and support for care workers. At the same time, it would also illustrate how care could be organised differently - without a focus on profit, in line with needs, non-hierarchical, making the strict separation between facilities and users more fluid. The topic is therefore not just care, but also empowerment.

Because "feminist socialisation" is to be understood comprehensively: Democratically organised, non-profit institutions and, at the same time, communally organised services for the care work that is currently performed in small families or individual households - gender-hierarchical, dependent on income, reinforcing loneliness. In this sense, feminist socialisation brings the whole of work into the various movements for the socialisation of housing or businesses, making them complete. In addition, the approach combines urgently needed support in the here and now, empowerment of poor and overburdened people in particular, and utopian surplus: We could live very differently - and it would be much nicer.

Barbara Fried also presented the role models of 'caring cities' in Spain and Latin America, in particular the example of Barcelona. The municipal policy project there, known as the "programme for the democratisation of care work", has many facets. One of these is that a municipal care service in the city, which is divided into "superblocks", is responsible for people in need of care in a fixed catchment area. The aim: no profits from care, local anchoring of care and involvement of relatives, neighbours and friends of the people receiving care. This reorganisation of the care infrastructure was possible because, on the basis of a powerful social movement following the occupations of squares and neighbourhood committees in 2011, local parties that see themselves as an extension of these movements entered parliaments and city governments. The speaker also explained that feminist perspectives are strongly anchored in this movement.

As there is no comparable movement here - yet? - Barbara Fried explained how 'Sorge ins Parkcenter' has tried and will try to organise through door-to-door talks, setting up temporary meeting points ("Kiosk of Care"), connecting neighbours in blocks of flats and neighbourhood meetings. Because this increase in the neighbourhood residents' ability to act is part of the desired change - 'Sorge ins Parkcenter' intervenes and organises, not as a supplicant.

The event was not recorded. If this brief insight whets your appetite for more information on 'Sorge ins Parkcenter' and the background, there are many good sources; we would like to refer you to two of them here. Firstly, a brochure published by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and secondly, podcast #7 from the "Danke für nichts" series by Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie.

Towards the end of the event, we discussed how this topic can be more firmly anchored in the Care Revolution network, for example in the form of a work focus and jointly produced material. We are still at the very beginning here, but it is certainly helpful that groups and organisations working on this topic are part of the network. In addition to 'Sorge ins Parkcenter' and the Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie, the group 'Wir sorgen gemeinsam' from Mainz and Wiesbaden is also working on the topic of a care centre. A Care Revolution activist organised an event in Halle on the topic of a 'caring city', and in Heidelberg there is the alliance 'Galeria für alle', with contact to Care Revolution Rhein/Neckar. Its plan is to turn a vacant department stores' in Heidelberg city centre into a care centre.

Quoted from the flyer of 'Galeria' for all: "Galeria for All! transforms this moment of uncertainty into an opportunity and asks: What if Galeria were available to urban society - a building that invites people to meet, that creates consumer-free offers, that offers free space for different uses, that goes beyond pure functionality; a building that gives instead of taking?

Galeria for All! therefore also means City for All! - a city in which community, not consumption, takes centre stage. A city in which spaces do not stand empty, but are enlivened - by ideas, neighbourhood, art, culture and caring togetherness."

If you are interested in becoming active within the Care Revolution network on the complex of 'feminist socialisation - caring cities - care centres', write to us at: koordination@care-revolution.org! We also always welcome reports on experiences and information on actions on the topic.