Discourses and practices of community-based care experiences. A moral perspective on gaseous, liquid and solid care

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an anthropological research focusing on the operation of several community-based care projects (two concerning cooperative housing – one of which is for seniors; and one concerning collective upbringing). Through an ethnographical approach the research compares the discourses and practices present in the experiences. The results firstly show the transcendence of individuality as a common element, in the sense given to the projects by the participants, and the use of meanings standing in between kinship and friendship, in the absence of cultural referents of community-based care. Secondly, the investigation reveals the use of the concept of care to name situations involving very different levels of intensity and engagement, which leads to their etic categorisation as gaseous, liquid and solid care. Finally, building on that categorisation, the study finds a modulation of the moral obligations of participants according to the intensity of the care, thus exposing the boundaries of the experiences when facing the most solidmaterial care.