PERC’s Nick Taylor is joined by Dr Amy Horton (UCL) to discuss the political economy of care, the nature of financialization in the care system and prospects for resistance and alternatives to the status quo. Amy is the author of ‘Financialization and non-disposable women: Real estate, debt and labour in UK care homes’, which came out in 2019 in Environment and Planning: A. The conversation moves from a discussion of the interacting trends that have affected social care –  privatisation, austerity and financialization – to the specific models of financial ownership at play and the crucial role that labour plays in both enabling and limiting financialization in residential care, and finally to principles for imagining an alternative future for care that recognise its social and relational value.

Literature discussed:

Horton (2019) ‘Financialization and non-disposable women: Real estate, debt and labour in UK care homes’ (pre-print version here)

Horton (2019) ‘Financing care’

Horton (2017) ‘Financialisation of care: investment and organising in the UK and US’

Bedford & Harper (2018) ‘Sustainable Social Care: What role for community business?’

Burns et al. (2016) ‘Where does the money go? Financialised chains and the crisis in residential care’

CHPI (2019) ‘Plugging the leaks in the UK care home industry‘

Women’s Budget Group (2016) ‘Investing in the care economy’