Re-imagining Parental Leave: a conceptual ‘thought experiment’

Abstract

This chapter is a conceptual, pragmatic and imaginative ‘thought experiment’. Broadly informed by Margaret Somers’ ‘historical sociology of concept formation’, which excavates the historicity, genealogies, and relationalities of concepts, we explore several key concepts, particularly commodification/decommodification and familialisation/defamilialisation. We argue that these concepts, and their histories and ensuing debates, are useful for thinking about and re-imagining Parental Leave as a social policy. The chapter begins by engaging with Gøsta Esping-Andersen’s contributions to debates on social policy and welfare states, briefly tracing his work’s roots in the work of Karl Polanyi, which we read with and through the writing of Fred Block and Margaret Somers, and Nancy Fraser. They and others argue that Polanyi’s work can help us understand and challenge relations between current enhanced conditions of neoliberal restructuring, market economies and ‘market fundamentalism’. With a focus on Canada, we map new pathways for future imaginaries in leave-to-care policy making. We argue that new interpretations of Polanyian insights introduce new conceptual configurations to Parental Leave debates, linking neoliberalism, paid work and care work, market fundamentalism, social protection, social citizenship, and entanglements between socio-economic rights and human rights.