USP – FFLCH (Sala 14)
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 the German Centre for Research and Innovation São Paulo (DWIH), 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, Federal Ministry of Education and Research – BMBF
Sérgio Proença, Universidade de São Paulo
Adrián Lavalle, Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento
Márcio 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 position care as an emerging issue. It seeks to provide a diagnosis of the current situation, taking into account its historical roots. 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 Guitérrez-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.
Moderation: Bianca Tavolari, CEBRAP / Mecila Principal Investigator
Discussants:
Luiza Nassif Pires, Universidade de São Paulo
Eugenia Brage, UBA- CONICET/ PAGU, Unicamp /Mecila Junior Fellow 2023
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
Márcio Weichert, DWIH São Paulo
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.
Moderation: Barbara Göbel, Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut / Mecila Principal Investigator
Discussants:
Miriam Nobre, SOF – Sempreviva Organização Feminista
Izadora Xavier do Monte, Mecila Junior Fellow 2024
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
Moderation: Marianne Braig, Freie Universität Berlin / Member of the Mecila Ethics Committee
Discussants:
Guita Grin Debert, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, UNICAMP
Lorena Hakak, Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV RI)
18:30 – 19:00 | Closing Remarks
Encarnación Guitérrez-Rodríguez, Universität Frankfurt am Main (Germany) / Member of the Mecila Advisory Board
Laura Flamand, El Colegio de México / Mecila Principal Investigator
Raquel Rojas, Freie Universität Berlin / Mecila Postdoctoral Investigator