‘The Good Live-in Care Worker’: Subject Formation and Ethnicisation in Austrian Live-in Care
‘The Good Live-in Care Worker’: Subject Formation and Ethnicisation in Austrian Live-in Care
Author(s): Veronika PrielerSubject(s): Social Sciences, Sociology, Labor relations, Health and medicine and law, Family and social welfare, Sociology of the arts, business, education, Welfare services, Migration Studies, Socio-Economic Research
Published by: Sociologický ústav - Slovenská akadémia vied
Keywords: Live-in care; migrant care workers; subject formation; ethnicisation; technologies of dominance and of the self;
Summary/Abstract: ‘The Good Live-in Care Worker’: Subject Formation and Ethnicisation in Austrian Live-in Care. This paper investigates subject formation processes in Austrian live-in care. Proceeding from a Foucauldian understanding of subjectivity as a product of powerful discourses and techniques and based on an intersectional discourse analysis of interviews with different actors involved in this arrangement, it shows how the ideal live-in care worker combines professional and language skills with characteristics such as an intrinsic motivation, emotional competences, and adaptability. Ethnicity-related discourses play an important role in this context, be it with regard to highly valued qualities or as a justification for control and/or support, and thus serve as a means to reproduce power relations.
Journal: Sociológia - Slovak Sociological Review
- Issue Year: 53/2021
- Issue No: 5
- Page Range: 483-501
- Page Count: 19
- Language: English