Sophie Bowlby

Shadow Times The Temporal and Spatial Frameworks and Experiences of Caring and Working

In this article we explore temporal and spatial frameworks for analysing the experience of combining caring for children with participation in paid work. We highlight the pressure to undertake paid employment routinely, which places particular strains upon people who are most likely to have to combine caring and working. The authors assert that mothers continue to have the main responsibility for the organization, if not the conduct, of caring work (Sevenhuijsen, 1998). Traditional assumptions about the seeming relationship between femininity and caring remain relatively intact, despite major shifts in family formation, women’s participation in the labour market and debates about the changing role of men (Cancian and Oliker, 1999; Lister, 1997). Drawing upon the work of Adam (2000) on timescapes we develop the notion of caringscapes as a means by which the processes of combining caring and working may be theorized and also incorporated into UK government policy related to caring (whether directly or indirectly). We draw attention to the inadequacy of public policy that does not incorporate an awareness of the demands of the everyday across the lifecourse, of which a spatial-temporal component should be fundamental. The authors propose a caringscape perspective as a basis for both future research and policy developments and conclude that an enhanced recognition of the fluidity and praxis of caring and gender is necessary to support the evolving roles of parents, especially mothers who combine caring and working.

Bodies and Spaces: An Exploration of Disabled People's Experiences of Public Space

In this paper we consider the ways in which concepts of and attitudes towards ‘disability’ affect disabled peoples ability to move freely within public spaces. We first set the paper in context by briefly discussing recent developments in and ongoing debates on the conceptualisation of disability which have accompanied the growing disability rights movement. Next we examine feminist literature relating to the links between biology and the body and the social status of women and draw out parallels for the analysis of disabled peoples social situation. We then discuss a possible framework for the analysis of disabled peoples experience of public space. Finally, to illustrate the reflexive relationship between bodily and social experience, we draw on in-depth interview material from a case study of visually impaired people in Reading and Leeds, England.

“Doing home”: Patriarchy, caring, and space

Abstract This paper is an introduction to and a reflection on this Special Issue on “Concepts of Home.” It raises the issues inherent in considering the complex notion of “the home.” We highlight the significance of power and patriarchy, household tasks and caring, and space and place, in the analysis of “domestic” social relations and the meanings and politics surrounding “the home.”

Gender, Caring and Employment in Britain

Employment and social policies continue to be based upon a gender template that assumes women, especially mothers, are or should be natural carers. Invariably, policies that seek to promote womens entry to paid work do so by facilitating their management and conduct of caring work, thus reinforcing the gender template. In addition, contemporary debates around concepts of citizenship emphasise the obligation to paid employment but fail to tackle the gendered division of caring activities and organisation of care. Enhanced access to childcare merely recreates the gender template by promoting low paid jobs for women as paid carers who are predominantly providing care services for other women. The provision of unpaid paternity leave is unlikely to challenge the strong association between femininity, mothering and care work. In this article we explore notions of caring, home and employment. It is argued that ambivalence exists amongst policy makers, employers, and society more generally, towards the gendered nature of caring and the implications of this for women, and men who wish to care, who are in paid employment. These are old issues and the authors consider why change in social and public policies is so slow. The authors argue that a consideration of gender and equality principles, currently largely absent from welfare and employment policies, and debates on notions of citizenship, should form the basis for the development of future strategies to support parents and children.

Friendship, co-presence and care: neglected spaces

This paper explores the spaces important to friendship, arguing for a better understanding of the significance of friendship in geographies of care. It examines the intertwining of friendship, care and co-presence and explores the social contexts and spaces of friendship, with a particular focus on the space of the home. While friendships are an important form of care and support for most people, they have been neglected in geographical studies of care. There is an opportunity for geographers to add a new dimension to the existing literature on friendship and thereby to expand knowledge and understanding of change in the sources of intimacy, care and support.

Recognising the Time—Space Dimensions of Care: Caringscapes and Carescapes

This paper is concerned with the geographical analysis of care relationships. It argues that concern with space needs to be augmented by a more explicit attention to the importance of time to caring. The paper discusses the importance of time to social relationships of care, and reviews existing attempts to integrate time with space in geographical research. The paper reflects on and extends the ‘caringscapes/carescapes’ framework for research on informal care proposed in a recent book and earlier publications by myself and colleagues. It suggests that exploring the time—space links between the processes producing policies and services and those affecting individual behaviours is a promising avenue for future research.

Crossing boundaries: Racialised gendering and the labour market experiences of pakistani migrant women in britain

Abstract In this paper we discuss an interview-based study of the experiences of 27 first-generation Pakistani Muslim women in Britain who were looking for or undertaking paid work in the town of Reading. We explore the ways in which doing paid work enmeshes with the constitution of their gendered, racialised, and classed identities. These identities, we argue, are best understood in the context of an analysis that recognises the continuing importance of their relationship to a wider diasporic Pakistani/South Asian Islamic culture. We conclude that the place of paid work in the life of a “British Pakistani Muslim woman” is a contested area in which there are a number of competing ideas about appropriate work which are strongly related to the class position and lifestage of the women.

Planning for Women to Shop in Postwar Britain

In this paper, the ways in which changes in womens domestic and waged labour and changing ideologies of womens domestic roles have both been related to retail planning in postwar Britain are examined. Recent trends in retailing and retail planning in the light both of womens current shopping behaviour and of their attitudes towards shopping are then assessed. The paper is concluded with an exploration of the implications of a feminist approach to retail planning and research.

Starting well: Gender, care and health in the family context

In this article we present a critique of a series of public policy documents that aim at improvement in health for the general population, particularly families, but fail to recognize or appreciate the implications of gender for the everyday and the long-term experiences of family members. Drawing upon considerations of gender, families, health, time and space, and previous theoretical work (McKie et al., 2002), we propose the concept of ‘healthscapes’ to aid the analysis and development of public policies. A healthscapes approach allows analysis of health policy within the diverse and multi-dimensional notions of time, space and gender that infuse the lifecourse. We assert that consideration of the gendered and generational project of caring, particularly in relation to the (re)production of health, should involve a reflective inter-play between theory, research and policy.

Changing Times, Changing Places: Urban Development and the Politics of Space–Time

Much of the writing on urban regeneration in the UK has been focused on the types of urban spaces that have been created in city centres. Less has been written about the issue of when the benefits of regeneration could and should be delivered to a range of different interests, and the different time frames that exist in any development area. Different perceptions of time have been reflected in dominant development philosophies in the UK and elsewhere. The trickle-down agendas of the 1980s, for example, were criticised for their focus on the short-term time frames and needs of developers, often at the expense of those of local communities. The recent emergence of sustainability discourses, however, ostensibly changes the time focus of development and promotes a broader concern with new imagined futures. This paper draws on the example of development in Salford Quays, in the North West of England, to argue that more attention needs to be given to the politics of space–time in urban development processes. It begins by discussing the importance and relevance of this approach before turning to the case study and the ways in which the local politics of space–time has influenced development agendas and outcomes. The paper argues that such an approach harbours the potential for more progressive, far-reaching, and sustainable development agendas to be developed and implemented.