infonet-economy

Despite good intentions, numerous change initiatives to counteract problems in residential care facilities have only shown limited effects so far. In this paper we argue that in order to improve the quality of care in residential homes in the long-run, the professional care logic – which currently dominates the field – needs to be complemented with a relational logic of care that emphasizes its “practical ethics”. A practical ethics can be understood as an ethics of care that is enacted through mundane, everyday relational practices. Emphasizing the informal character of care, it reframes conventional understandings of the care relationship and re-imagines the scope of what may be considered a care practice. More concretely, the paper identifies five informal care practices that were observed during an ethnographic field study at an elderly nursing home in Germany. By acknowledging that care – as relational practice – is multi-directional, involving many different actors of a care system, and not always a harmonious endeavor, this paper contributes to a reconceptualization of care practices which may entail material effects in terms of improving the quality of care in residential homes, and the well-being of all actors involved in the caring process.