‘Making vulnerability’ while negotiating family care practices: evidence from multigenerational living

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article draws upon in-depth interviews conducted in Czech multigenerational living with representatives of three generations. The repeated interviews took place in 2018–2019 and then in spring 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. The analysis focused on caring practices and dynamics of care between three generations and how these had been impacted by pandemic in 2020. We were interested in how the pandemic affected the daily lives of multigenerationally living family members and how through their caring practices they redefine what family in the era of super-diversity is. In order to do so, we particularly focus on how vulnerability has been constructed through the caring practices as a response to Covid-19. We followed the scholarship on vulnerability which emphasises its social character and sees it as a social construct. We put forward this discussion and aim at developing the concept of ‘making vulnerability’ – processes through which people make themselves and others vulnerable through daily taken-for-granted routines and rituals – as an essential part of family care practices.