Caring at the edges: infrastructures of care and repair in urban deprivation

Traill, H., Anderson, S. , Shaw, D. , Cumbers, A. and McMaster, R. (2024) Caring at the edges: infrastructures of care and repair in urban deprivation. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, (doi: 10.1177/02637758241231106) (Early Online Publication)

Abstract

Care is an activity vital to making the world liveable. Alternative infrastructures of care have emerged that re-centre care and repair within everyday life. These infrastructures often require more care to address care deficits and repair the social fabric of society; however, insights are limited as to the implications of demands on people and the places they reside for such extra care. Through an ethnographic study of a community food hub in an area of entrenched deprivation, we examine how an alternative infrastructure of care is built in practice. We demonstrate how care unfolds expansively across people and place to (reactively) repair care deficits and (proactively) generate new care relations. We contribute to the complexity of care theorising by revealing the challenges of care provision that stem from a position of necessity and repair. We offer a critical discussion of alternative infrastructures of care that simultaneously recognises the opportunities for hope, whilst acknowledging their limits.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was supported by funding from the EU/Scottish Government Social Innovation Fund Stage 2 [grant number: SIF-R2-S2-LUPS-013].
• Keywords: Care, repair, infrastructures of care, deprivation, urban marginality, community.
• Status: Early Online Publication
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Shaw, Professor Deirdre and McMaster, Professor Robert and Anderson, Dr Stephanie and Cumbers, Professor Andrew and Traill, Dr Helen
• Authors: Traill, H., Anderson, S., Shaw, D., Cumbers, A., and McMaster, R.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Management
• Journal Name: Environment and Planning D: Society and Space
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• ISSN: 0263-7758
• ISSN (Online): 1472-3433
• Published Online: 13 April 2024
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2024 The Author(s)
• First Published: First published in Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 2024
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons license