The political work of emotions
care, pandemic, and protest in Spain
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-7289.2024.1.45145Keywords:
Care homes, Covid-19, Protest, Emotions, DignityAbstract
We analyse the impact of the pandemic on the care system in Spain. In particular, we focus on the perspective of relatives to illuminate the crisis of the residential care model that the COVID-19 pandemic brought to light. The pandemic had a major impact on Spanish care homes, with one of the highest mortality rates in the European Union. This caused suffering, not only for residents, but also for relatives, who reacted by mobilising and demanding political accountability. In line with the anthropology of emotions, we analyse the emotional grammars underlying the protest to show how the suffering of relatives becomes intelligible in the framework of a residential care model in crisis, and how it acquires political value beyond the private and individual sphere in which care is usually understood. Thus, we show the political work of emotions and their analytical potential in examining the transformations and challenges of the current care system.
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