Care economy in the local area: neighbourhood and village for all

In our utopia, in the year 2048 all people live together in their diversity in neighbourhoods or villages, in solidarity, in exchange, barrier-free. This article deals with the questions of how such structures need to be organised so that everyone can really participate. It is based on a workshop that we held at the "Future for All" congress organised by Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie 2020, but it goes beyond this to some extent. Many considerations begin with an analysis and critique of conditions and often do not lead to a utopia. We were therefore very pleased about the congress, which focussed on utopia. One criterion by which our utopia must be measured is that decisions, developments and prioritisation must focus on people's actual needs and not on the goal of making as much profit as quickly as possible. Care needs must not continue to be organised like the need for goods and the associated work and relationships must therefore not be commodified. In addition, the needs and the necessity of good conditions should be considered from the three positions. This means that care recipients and unpaid and paid care workers should no longer be played off against each other. In the 2010s, the technocratic-sounding term "inclusive social spaces" emerged, which describes these utopian structures well. However, few people remember this in 2048 because inclusive design has become so self-evident that it no longer needs to be emphasised. Some people still need personal assistance or specialised support structures to a greater or lesser extent. Care needs such as childcare, relationship work, cooking and housework are organised in various forms, largely on a self-managed and communal basis.Less gainful employmentA significant change has taken place in time policy in 2048. One point of orientation is now Frigga Haug's "four-in-one" perspective. According to this perspective, people have a similar amount of time available for four different types of activities: productive, reproductive and political work as well as work in the areas of creativity, leisure and free time. To achieve this, the proportion of gainful employment had to decrease significantly. People do not have to spend more than 20 hours a week in gainful employment. This means that all of life's activities are valued and recognised and are freed from the pressure to be efficient. Community and collectivity are highly valued, but there is no compulsion. Where there is a desire for communal, collective living, it is encouraged and supported; care work is seen as an offer. The social networks required for this have become increasingly important in our daily interactions and have a lasting impact on our existence; we all support each other together. They have come into being because we live and strengthen solidarity and social issues instead of accumulating economic capital. Relationships are more open and diverse and are accorded at least as much importance as nuclear families once did. We are no longer focussing on cis-heterosexual monogamous relationships, such as nuclear families, to which all other forms of relationships and thus social structures around care work were previously aligned, but are expanding these, for example, by allowing people who have a high level of resources to share these with others, even outside their close relationships, if they wish. By breaking down heteronormativity, care work is no longer largely covered by people socialised as females; instead, people who identify with other genders also participate in care work, regardless of the form it takes.Boundaries are being openedSince care work is carried out collectively and in solidarity outside the nuclear family, it no longer has to be done by poorly paid migrants from Eastern Europe and the Global South. Their qualifications and educational qualifications are recognised so that they can work in the professions they have learned and no longer have to fill the gaps in care. In order to curb the exploitation of social and ecological resources, they will no longer be used primarily for the accumulation of capital and will be more strictly regulated. Ownership of the means of production has declined and more and more areas are being socialised, owned jointly or cooperatively. The organisational structures there are flatter and more grassroots democratic. The partial socialisation of property has reduced the importance and appreciation of money. People can also participate without money, as their income and livelihood is no longer dependent on gainful employment. The resources and infrastructure required to cover the need for paid care work are also provided by society in a spirit of solidarity. Everyone is adequately provided for - for example through an unconditional, global basic income - and no one has to go hungry or be homeless.Diversity is a value in itselfA lot has changed in 2048, but it was not always easy to reorganise the previous structures so that they are accessible to everyone. Accessibility is what is accessible and usable for people in the usual way and in principle without outside help, with the emphasis on "in principle". In the past, the concept of accessibility was mostly used as a disability policy, but it could easily be applied to other exclusions. Where accessibility has not yet been achieved, where certain barriers could not be removed for technical reasons or where certain disabled people are fundamentally unable to use accessible services, so-called "reasonable accommodations" have made access possible. These are measures that are individually adapted to the needs of the people and the situation. Accessibility is an essential prerequisite for an inclusive society. Such a society recognises everyone in all their diversity and accepts this diversity as a value in itself. This includes recognising that every person has certain strengths that they can develop under certain conditions. For whatever reason, some people require conditions that differ significantly from those of others, which is why society must help to create such conditions. The presence of disabilities or physical, mental or cognitive impairments is just one of many reasons for this. The discussion about inclusion in the German-speaking mainstream at the time therefore fell far short of the mark. When it comes to the inclusive organisation of society in general or of certain structures, it should be noted, among other things, that people are not disabled because they are unable to perform certain activities. Rather, people are disabled because society places certain demands on them that they are unable to fulfil due to their physical, mental or cognitive characteristics. These characteristics can only be recognised by others in a minority of people.Removing barriers to participationIn 2048, all work, productive and reproductive, is perceived and valued equally in society. The grassroots democratic organisation in the neighbourhoods and villages takes place predominantly in inclusive councils. People come together there in small and large units, and all needs for services and infrastructures are heard. In this way, awareness of these needs can be raised in order to coordinate them and organise the work and measures required to meet them. For example, there are officers whose focus is on diversity. Power relations and structural disadvantages are reduced, ensuring that all those who wish to do so can actively participate. The latter poses challenges for self-organised structures in particular, as the concept of self-organisation places relatively high demands on those involved. In the past, this was particularly practised by groups in which people came together who were relatively homogeneous in terms of education, (social) background and political attitudes. In order to make organisational structures more inclusive, the expectations of "newcomers" were therefore reviewed and a variety of opportunities for participation and transparent communication were created that proactively shows which barriers have already been avoided or (already) removed and which "reasonable accommodation" can be further organised. Disadvantaged people feel that they are being addressed from the outset, and the beginnings of these changes were already recognisable in 2020. The coronavirus crisis has made us all all the more aware of how important social relationships are and that solidarity with one another is ingrained in most of us. The precarious situation in institutions providing care and accommodation for homeless people, people with disabilities, people in need of care and refugees was also highlighted by the pandemic as if through a magnifying glass. In response, interest in alternative care structures, which already existed on a small scale, grew significantly. Structures have developed from the bottom up in which time and material goods are shared. Let's hold on to them and make them big, so that the concept of inclusion becomes obsolete because everything is inclusive. In our utopia of 2048, this has been realised and life and togetherness is characterised by solidarity and participation. We look forward to this future!The authors know each other through the activities of the Care Revolution network. They work in different areas such as economics, care, disability policy and feminism.