Moving from gender in the economy of care to gender relations in negotiating well being: changing environments, new conceptualisations and methodologies

Abstract

"Is the economy of care still a good conceptualisation for the changes currently occurring in sub- Saharan Africa? Why is there a persistent invisibility of women and their contributions to both the reproduction and production work in society? Why is it that despite the change in gender roles, there is a persistent non dynamic change in gender power relations that pervade social relations of production and reproduction? The work at hand is a contribution that sets out to develop new conceptualisations, methodologies and issues for research. It is an attempt to formulate new conceptualisations of gender relations beyond the household but which are in close intersection with household economies. This interface, as I would like to construe of it, is an intersection of the household and other social institutions like the market and the public sphere. How these social institutions intersect and how this affects decisions on who does what, when, with whom, with what, why and how things are to be done, are conceptual and methodological issues that will be here analysed. The point of departure is that in Africa, relations between men and women at the social, economic and political spheres are undergoing specific and significant transformations. However, despite the specificities of the changes to a given situation and everyday realities as experienced by social groups in a given context, there has been little research on how inter-linkages at different levels do occur. Moreover, these specificities show commonalities, necessitating the development of concepts that cut across the geographical divide. The central problem addressed by this paper is that of combining context specific, historically relevant but cross cutting (comparative) analytical lenses that address the changing nature of gender relations. This new way of looking further addresses the need for a re-conceptualisation of household economies by moving them to the contours of both the markets and the public sphere and interlinking them in order to tease out the continuities and discontinuities there of. The paper thus recognizes that although the economy of care is a good starting point, it has however failed to capture in its entirety the changing gender power relations in negotiating well being by securing entitlement to livelihood at the different but interlinked spheres of social life. As such therefore, the paper proposes a re-conceptualisation of gender in the economy of care to the analysis of gender relations in the negotiation of well being. I further illustrate why the concept of negotiating well being and the gender power relations there in, is a much wider and relevant concept to the changing African everyday realities. I argue that once we adopt the concept of negotiating well being, then, it will be of necessity to redirect some of our epistemological and consequently conceptual and methodological approaches. It is through doing this that we may begin to appreciate the social realities as they present themselves to us." (author's abstract)