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Home Care Fault Lines: Understanding Tensions and Creating Alliances

The Sociology and Anthropology Department will host the second of their Research Series this year. Dr. Cynthia Cranford, associate professor of sociology at the University of Toronto, will present Home Care Fault Lines at noon on Friday, October 16.

Race and class tensions exist in home health care between the elderly or disabled and the immigrant women who take care of them. Studies have shown that increasing alliances between the two parties are necessary for quality care in these situations. Cranford says alliances are not enough. The underlying tensions first need to be recognized and addressed. How then, she asks, can home care be arranged to not only reduce these tensions but also increase alliances between the two parties?

The coronavirus pandemic has made it very clear that the dual ability to analyze both how inequality works and how we might mitigate it is more important than ever.

Using the analysis of 300 interviews, Cranford, author of the book Home Care Fault Lines: Understanding Tensions and Creating Alliances, has compared the differences between four government-funded home health care programs.

“This talk will compare two of the cases illuminating the limits and possibilities of coalitions for flexibility with security in disability support. The coronavirus pandemic has made it very clear that the dual ability to analyze both how inequality works and how we might mitigate it is more important than ever,” Cranford said.

The Sociology and Anthropology Research series occur regularly over the noon hour. The next talk in the series is on Friday, November 13.

These talks are free and open to the public. To attend the noon meeting, join us on Zoom.