Care, Family Policy and Social Citizenship in South Africa

Abstract

All people are in need of care at some point in their life. Although families and kin used to provide care in all societies, the division between family and work life have led to new care arrangements. In today’s societies not only families but also the state, the market and nonprofit organisations are involved in care. The internal dynamics between these sectors are explained in certain welfare literature as a “care diamond” where local conditions determine the prominence of the different sectors in this care diamond. In addition, international bodies furthered discourses on human rights, often in the form of layered social citizenship, that include notions of care towards individuals. Welfare states in the North, the East Asian developmental states and Latin America have all followed distinct paths in trying to provide care to individuals and realise social citizenship. The social policies implemented in Africa are sometimes lead along these paths but have met with limited success. The logic of the care diamond is used in this article to focus on specific South African policy initiatives related to care and families. Such policies are often nudged in specific directions by international understandings of social citizenship. Although certain care policies are directed towards individuals regardless of family structures, specific family policy directions in South Africa are stuck in idealised family forms. Furthermore, the gender dynamics and the intersections between gender, class and race that are prominent in all care relationships are largely ignored in family and related policies on care.