The care crisis, social infrastructure and the COVID-19 crisis

During the COVID-19 pandemic there was arguably a “discursive explosion” around care (Chatzidakis et.al., 2020), indicating a new growing visibility and recognition of care. We set out to investigate this and how the concepts of social infrastructure and care crisis could be woven together. Looking at how care was discussed in newspapers and governmental press conferences before and during the COVID-19 crisis in the U.S. and Denmark, we analyzed whether the pandemic has changed how society conceptualizes care using a feminist, comparative discourse perspective.During the pandemic, discourse in both countries stressed health and protecting the vulnerable, which weakened neoliberal logics. But there were notable differences: in the US the role of individuals and heroes were highlighted, whereas in Denmark there was much emphasis on “community spirit” and silence around testing and lockdown costs. In this way, the dominant discourses spoke to the main logic of the respective welfare regime.