The Culture of Care in Britain since the Second World War
By Bernice Martin
Published
Feb 24, 2025Page count
240 pagesISBN
978-1529248173Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Bristol University PressPublished
Feb 24, 2025Page count
240 pagesISBN
978-1529248180Dimensions
234 x 156 mmImprint
Bristol University Press
The Culture of Care in Britain since the Second World War
This book examines the evolving value of caregiving in Britain, from the welfare state's inception to the present day. It explores the shifts in discourse surrounding care, charting key social, demographic, economic, political and cultural changes which have led to the current 'care crisis'.
The author examines five key themes: the tension within institutional Christianity between caring for the marginalized versus maintaining 'respectability'; the secularization of the value of care and its interaction with emerging social divisions; the persistent expectation that women bear the caregiving burden; the economic and social undervaluation of emotional and practical care work; and the challenges facing the care and health sectors. The author suggests that recalibrating the tax system to shift the burden from incomes to profits may be necessary for the survival of welfare systems under these new conditions.
“Deploying an autobiographical approach and an unusually wide range of sources, this book tells the story of care in Britain through seven decades. Don’t miss it.” Grace Davie, University of Exeter
Bernice Martin is Emeritus Reader in Sociology at Royal Holloway, University of London.
1. Introduction: Apologia and Recollection
2. Secularization and the Second Great Commandment
3. Care for Others, Secularization and Britain’s New Identity Tribes
4. Caring, Gender and Secularization: The ‘Feminization of Piety’ and Its Legacy
5. The Popular Evangelical Narrative of Care and Some Modern Analogues
6. Feminism and the Gendering of Care
7. The Care Crisis
8. Rethinking Capitalism, the Future of Work and Role of Care
