by Baijayanta Mukhopadhyay

Paperback | 78 pp. | 4.5 x 7 in | May 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9951551-1-4

Providing care to the sick is one of the most universal labours that exists across human societies. How do we understand the work that goes into this vital collective task? How do we arrange different forms of caregiving labour? How do we decide what forms of labour remain informal and unregulated, while others remains more controlled and institutionalised? What has led to the way we prioritise and the way we value caregiving labour types?  This work explores the forms of labour – from the cognitive to the emotional, from the physical to the administrative – that go into contemporary healthcare, tracing the lineage of the hierarchies that have developed in alliance or complicity with state and capital. Through analysing the repercussions of these relationships on the care of the sick, the book questions the role of coercion and extraction in health work, and poses an argument for a more liberatory future for caregiving labour.