Affects of policy design: The case of young carers in the Care Act 2014 and the Children and Families Act 2014

Chloe Alexander

doi:10.1111/spol.12692

Abstract

AbstractThis article presents an analysis of policies on young carers in England, considering both the design but also the lived experience of policy subjects. Drawing on affect theory we can increase understanding of the reach of these policies into family life and the nature of English policy‐making focussed on this group. This analytic framework presents the opportunity to draw on the use of affect theory developed in other disciplines but less so in the discipline of social policy. The article argues, firstly, that normative messages through policy design are conveyed to families through affects. Secondly, it argues that hierarchies of subject positions established within policy design are reaching and impacting on young carers and their families through affective pressures. This article demonstrates that affect theory contributes to the analysis of social policies on young carers and also illuminates the impacts of policies in the context of limited formal implementation.

Highlights

This article explores the current state of policies in England that address children's unpaid care work in family relationships
To analyse the role of affect on policies relating to young carers, this article draws on a qualitative study into the ways that policies impacted on the family life of young carers, forged by an affective connection between policy design and lived experience
The legislation is still having an impact on families, by shaping their emotional lives and the affective significance of care work

Summary

Introduction

The aim of the article is to develop a framework to investigate the disconnection in this particular case between policy aims and the lived experience of the policy To develop this framework, the article draws on affect theory and defines affect as the bodily sensations that locate us in the social world. The article draws on affect theory and defines affect as the bodily sensations that locate us in the social world It argues that by examining the affects of policy subject hierarchies, the interpretation of norms and policy knowledge production through ethnographic data on care and family life, we can better understand the construction and consequences of policies for young carers. This presents the opportunity to draw on the use of affect theory developed in other disciplines but less so in the discipline of social policy (Newman, 2012)

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