Care that Matters, Matters of Care: Overcoming Inequalities through Care Policies

Mecila Final Workshop
Mecila/DWIH T20 side Event
International Symposium “Care that Matters, Matters of Care: Overcoming Inequalities through Care Policies”

São Paulo, 14-15 October 2024

Brazil has assumed the presidency of the G20 in 2024 and will host government representatives from its member states and invited countries who will participate in the Leaders’ Summit and ministerial meetings. Within this framework, the T20 – a group that brings together think tanks and research institutes from the G20 – aims to identify emerging societal challenges and discuss evidence-based proposals to address them, opening a channel of communication with the G20 and seeking to influence its agenda. Mecila, the Maria Sibylla Merian Center Conviviality-Inequality in Latin America, was invited to participate in the T20 Brazil discussions and decided to link it to its final workshop, so that the 2024 Mecila Fellows would have the opportunity to discuss their work with academics, civil society and political actors from Brazil and other countries.

The symposium “Care that Matters, Matters of Care: Overcoming Inequalities trough Care Policies” is framed in this context – as a side event of the T20 – bringing together researchers as well as civil society actors and government representatives working on care policies as key tools to address gender inequalities and their intersections with class and ethnic discrimination.

Care activities are essential for the reproduction of society and the maintenance of life. When the capacity to raise and educate children, cook meals, care for the sick, or maintain clean homes and strong communities is diminished, the entire social order crumbles. Yet, despite their importance, these activities have historically been undervalued and unequally distributed in our societies. Feminist scholars and activists have long advocated for the valorization and recognition of care as a crucial component of the economy, and in recent years, Latin American countries have made progress in designing and implementing public policies that seek to better distribute care in society in order to reduce inequalities.

This symposium – co-funded by Mecila, the German Centre for Research and Innovation São Paulo (DWIH) and the International Cooperation Office of USP (Aucani) – aims to bring together different academic work on care and inequalities, both in Germany and in Brazil, as well as in other Latin American countries, contributing with proposals for the G20. During this two-day event, we will discuss the links between care and inequalities across time and space, the struggles of different actors to valorize care, as well as the successes and challenges of public policies already implemented in the region. This event comes in response to the T20 Task Force 1, which identified the need to rethink the care economy in order to combat gender discrimination and inequalities.

Sign up until 09.10.24:  https://cloud.mecila.uni-koeln.de/index.php/apps/forms/s/HBaaE8Gb4Rjk823fXF2MF3it 

Program

Monday, 14.10
USP – FFLCH (Sala 14)

17:00 – 18:00 | Event Opening and Welcome Address
Nina von Sartori, German General Embassy Brasília
Sérgio Proença, President of the International Cooperation Office of Universidade de São Paulo – Aucani
Adrian Lavalle, Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento – Cebrap
Marcio Weichert, German Centre for Research and Innovation São Paulo – DWIH São Paulo
Sérgio Costa, Freie Universität Berlin / Mecila Spokesperson

Moderation: Laura Flamand, El Colegio de México / Mecila Principal Investigator

18:00 – 20:00 | Roundtable: Care and Inequalities Across Time and Space
The purpose of this roundtable is to discuss the interplay between care and inequalities, taking into account the historical roots of this relationship and its current global entanglements. It also aims to identify possible solutions to the problems discussed and the progress that has been made in this regard in Latin America and beyond.

Barbara Potthast, Universität zu Köln (Germany) / Mecila Principal Investigator
Encarnación Gutiérrez-Rodríguez, Universität Frankfurt am Main (Germany) / Member of the Mecila Advisory Board
Nadya Araujo Guimarães, Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil)
Karina Batthyány, CLACSO / Universidad de la República (Uruguay)
Moderation: Raquel Rojas, Freie Universität Berlin / Mecila Postdoctoral Investigator

20:00 – 21:30 | Reception and Networking

Tuesday, 15.10
USP – FFLCH (Sala 14)

10:00 – 12:00 |Panel I: Making care visible
The aim of this panel is to discuss the different aspects of care that become visible depending on the moment in the life cycle or the position in the social structure, as well as the strategies of different actors to valorize care activities.

• Priscila Vieira, Cebrap (Brazil) – Family care: a look at the particularities of caring for the elderly within families / Cuidando em família: um olhar para as particularidades do cuidado familiar de pessoas idosas / Cuidando en familia: un vistazo a las particularidades del cuidado familiar a personas mayores
• María Eugenia Rausky, IdIHCS- CONICET/Universidad Nacional de La Plata (Argentina) – Contributions from socio-anthropological studies of childhood to the analysis of care practices / Contribuições dos estudos socioantropológicos da infância para a análise das práticas de cuidado/ Los aportes de los estudios socio-antropológicos de las infancias al análisis de las prácticas de cuidado
• Talja Blokland, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Germany) / Mecila Senior Fellow 2024 – Between Institutional and Domestic Logics: Symbolic Capital in Community Development in a Disadvantaged Neighborhood in Berlin, Germany / Entre lógicas institucionais e domésticas: capital simbólico no desenvolvimento comunitário em um bairro desfavorecido de Berlim / Entre lógicas institucionales y la domésticas: el capital simbólico en el desarrollo comunitario de un barrio desfavorecido de Berlín
• Landy Sánchez, El Colegio de México (Mexico) – Heat and care: rethinking the implication of climate change for family and public care / Calor e cuidados: repensando as implicações das mudanças climáticas para os cuidados públicos e da familia / Calor y cuidados: repensando las implicaciones del cambio climático para los cuidados familiares y públicos

 Moderation: Bianca Tavolari, Cebrap / Mecila Principal Investigator (Brazil)

Discussants:
Luiza Nassif Pires, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Brazil)
Eugenia Brage, Universidad de Buenos Aires – CONICET/ PAGU, Unicamp /Mecila Junior Fellow 2023 (Brazil)

12:00 – 12:30 | DWIH Institutional Panel – Doing Research in Germany
Information on opportunities for research and study in Germany, including study scholarships and opportunities for cooperation
Marcio Weichert, DWIH São Paulo (Brazil)
Cíntia Toth, Sociedade Alemã de Amparo à Pesquisa (DFG)

12:30 – 14:00 | Lunch and Networking

14:00 – 16:00 | Panel II: Putting care on the political agenda
In this panel, we will focus on different strategies to bring care out of the private sphere and onto the political agenda, as well as the importance of the pandemic as a magnifying glass to analyze care inequalities.

• Raquel Rojas, Freie Universität Berlin (Germany) / Mecila Postdoctoral Investigator and Laura Flamand, El Colegio de México (Mexico) / Mecila Principal Investigator –  Care in the Polycrisis Era: Impacts on conviviality/inequality / O cuidado na era da policrise: Impactos na convivência/desigualdade /El cuidado en la era de la policrisis: Impactos en la convivencia/desigualdad
• Eryka Galindo, Universität Heidelberg (Germany) – Inequalities, food and care work: portraits of pandemic times in Brazil/ Desigualdades, alimentação e trabalho de cuidados: retratos de tempos de pandemia no Brasil/ Desigualdades, alimentación y trabajo de cuidados: retratos de tiempos de pandemia en Brasil
• Regina Stela Vieira, Cebrap / Universidade Federal de São Paulo – UNIFESP (Brazil) – Care rights in Brazil: Inequalities and challenges seen from the Global Care Policy Index / Direitos do cuidado no Brasil: desigualdades e desafios à luz do Global Care Policy Index / Derechos de cuidado en Brasil: desigualdades y desafios a luz del Global Care Policy Index
• Jana Silverman, Universidade Fedral do ABC (Brazil)  – Gender, race and collective action: The intersectional union strategies of domestic workers in the city of São Paulo / Gênero, raça e ação coletiva: As estratégias sindicais interseccionais das trabalhadoras domésticas na cidade de São Paulo / Género, raza y acción colectiva: Las estrategias sindicales interseccionales de las trabajadoras domesticas en la ciudad de São Paulo

Moderation: Barbara Göbel, Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut / Mecila Principal Investigator (Germany)

Discussants:
Miriam Nobre, SOF – Sempreviva Organização Feminista (Brazil)
Izadora Xavier do Monte, Mecila Junior Fellow 2024 (Brazil)

16:00 – 16:30 | Coffee break

16:30 – 18:30 | Panel III: Care and Social Policies: Successes, Challenges and Lessons Learned
In this panel, we aim to discuss the different policy approaches that countries in Latin America have proposed to recognize and redistribute care responsibilities more equitably, highlighting successful experiences as well as challenges at the national and transnational levels

• Mariana Mazzini Marcondes, Secretaria Nacional da Política de Cuidados e Família (Brazil)
• Laura Pautassi, CONICET / Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina) – The universality of care. Fulfillment of obligations in Latin America in contexts of structural inequality / A universalidade do cuidado. Cumprimento de obrigações na América Latina em contextos de desigualdade estrutural / La universalidad de los cuidados. El cumplimiento de obligaciones en América Latina en contextos de desigualdad estructural 
• Patricia Cossani Padilla, UN Women (Latin America and Caribbean) – Latin American and Caribbean experience in the creation of Integrated Care Systems and the expansion of public care policies / Experiencia de América Latina y el Caribe en la creación de Sistemas Integrales de Cuidados y en la ampliación de políticas públicas de cuidados / Experiência da América Latina e do Caribe na criação de sistemas de atendimento integrado e na expansão de políticas de atendimento público

Moderation: Marianne Braig, Freie Universität Berlin / Member of the Mecila Ethics Committee (Germany)

Discussants:
Guita Grin Debert, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Unicamp (Brazil)
Lorena Hakak, Fundação Getulio Vargas, FGV RI (Brazil)

18:30 – 19:00 | Closing Remarks
Encarnación Gutiérrez-Rodríguez, Universität Frankfurt am Main / Member of the Mecila Advisory Board (Germany)
Laura Flamand, El Colegio de México / Mecila Principal Investigator (Mexico)
Raquel Rojas, Freie Universität Berlin / Mecila Postdoctoral Investigator (Germany)