The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on society in southern Europe: the case of social innovation in the care of early childhood in Barcelona
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22325/fes/res.2022.131Keywords:
social innovation, COVID-19 pandemic, Southern Europe, early childhood careAbstract
A distinctive role of family care defines the southern European welfare models. Several studies have highlighted the functional overload for families with children under three years old, in which unpaid work is mainly provided by women (even when they work full time), in a context in which the public and private childcare provision is insufficient to meet families' needs. In Barcelona, the emergence of socially innovative projects has partially covered the demand for 0-3 childcare. These projects are based on communities of care made up of parents and educators. However, COVID-19 has severely impacted the participants in social innovations such as childminders, free-education nurseries, and community care groups. Educators working in these projects struggled to survive economically when the 2020 spring lockdown forced them to close, while the closures obliged mothers to juggle work with care.
This article presents the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mothers and educators involved in socially innovative 0-3 childcare projects in Barcelona. The paper uses qualitative and quantitative empirical material gathered between May 2020 and June 2021: interviews with representatives of childcare associations, educators and mothers (before and after the outbreak of COVID-19 in Spain), and a survey with mothers with children under three (after the lockdown). The results of our investigation show that the communities behind the projects constituted a crucial resource. Parents and educators helped each other, sharing care and financial resources to keep the projects going and find new solutions to the work-family balance.
References
Ajuntament de Barcelona. (2021). Pla per a l’educació i la criança de la petita infància. Mesura de govern. Ajuntament de Barcelona. https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/educacio/sites/default/files/210422_mesuradegovern_petitainfancia_def.pdf
Bertogg, A., & Koos, S. (2021). Socio-economic position and local solidarity in times of crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic and the emergence of informal helping arrangements in Germany. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 74, 100612. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rssm.2021.100612
Blanco, I., & León, M. (2017). Social innovation, reciprocity and contentious politics: Facing the socio-urban crisis in Ciutat Meridiana, Barcelona. Urban Studies, 54(9), 2172-2188. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098016659044
Blaskó, Z., Papadimitriou, E., & Manca, A. R. (2020). How will the COVID-19 crisis affect existing gender divides in Europe?. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
Bonoli, G. (2005). The politics of the new social policies: Providing coverage against new social risks in mature welfare states. Policy & Politics, 33(3), 431-449. https://doi.org/10.1332/0305573054325765
Bonoli, G. (2007). Time Matters: Postindustrialization, New Social Risks, and Welfare State Adaptation in Advanced Industrial Democracies. Comparative Political Studies, 40(5), 495-520. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414005285755
Bryman, A. (2009). Mixed methods in organizational research. In The Sage Handbook of Organizational Research Methods (pp. 516–531). SAGE Publications Ltd.
Caïs, J., & Folguera, L. (2013). Redefining the dynamics of intergenerational family solidarity in Spain. European Societies, 15(4), 557-576. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2013.836404
Castles, F. G. (1994). On religion and public policy: Does Catholicism make a difference? European Journal of Political Research, 25(1), 19-40. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-6765.1994.tb01199.x
Castles, F. G. (1995). Welfare state development in Southern Europe. West European Politics, 18(2), 291-313. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402389508425073
Collins, C., Landivar, L. C., Ruppanner, L., & Scarborough, W. J. (2020). COVID-19 and the Gender Gap in Work Hours. Gender, Work and Organization, 28(S1), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12506
Craig, L. (2020). Coronavirus, domestic labour and care: Gendered roles locked down. Journal of Sociology, 56(4), 684-692. https://doi.org/10.1177/1440783320942413
Craig, L., & Churchill, B. (2021). Dual‐earner parent couples’ work and care during COVID‐19. Gender, Work & Organization, 28(S1), 66-79. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12497
Cruz, H., Moreno, R. M., & Blanco, I. (2017). Crisis, Urban segregation and social innovation in Catalonia. Partecipazione e Conflitto, 10(1), 221-245. https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v10i1p221
Dias, F. A., Chance, J., & Buchanan, A. (2020). The motherhood penalty and the fatherhood premium in employment during covid-19: Evidence from the United States. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 69, 100542. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rssm.2020.100542
Esping-Andersen, G. (1990). The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Polity Press.
Esping-Andersen, G. (1999). The Social Foundations of Post-Industrial Economies. Oxford University Press.
Farré, L., Fawaz, Y., González, L., & Graves, J. (2020). How the COVID-19 lockdown affected gender inequality in paid and unpaid work in Spain. IZA Discussion Papers, (13434). http://hdl.handle.net/10419/223876
Ferrera, M. (1996). The “Southern Model” of Welfare in Social Europe. Journal of European Social Policy, 6(1), 17-37. https://doi.org/10.1177/095892879600600102
Gallego, R., & Subirats, J. (2011) “Regional welfare regimes and multilevel governance. In A. M. Guillén, & M. León (Eds.), The Spanish Welfare State in European Context. Surrey: Ashgate.
Gallego, R., & Subirats, J. (2012) Spanish Regional and Welfare Systems: Policy Innovation and Multi-level Governance. Regional and Federal Studies, 22(3): 269-288. https://doi.org/10.1080/13597566.2012.688271
Gallego, R., Gomà, R., & Subirats, J. (2005). Spain: from state welfare to regional welfare. In N. McEwen, & L. Moreno (Eds.), The territorial politics of welfare. London: Routledge.
Gallego, R., Gomà, R., & Subirats, J. (Eds.) (2003) Estado de Bienestar y Comunidades Autónomas. Madrid: Tecnos.
Guillén, A. M., & León, M. (Eds.). (2011). The Spanish Welfare State in European Context. Ashgate.
Hupkau, C., & Petrongolo, B. (2020). Work, care and gender during the Covid-19 crisis. Fiscal Studies, 41(3), 623-651. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-5890.12245
Koslowski, A., Blum, S., Dobrotić, I., Kaufman, G., & Moss, P. (2020). International Review of Leave Policies and Related Research 2020. https://www.leavenetwork.org/annual-review-reports/review-2020/
Leech, N. (2009). A typology of mixed methods research designs. Quality & Quantity, 43, 265-275. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-007-9105-3
Maestripieri, L. (2015). Gendering Social Vulnerability. The Role of Labour Market De-standardisation and Local Welfare. In D. Kutsar, & M. Kuronen (Eds.), Local welfare policy making in European Cities (pp. 51-67). Springer.
Maestripieri, L. (2017). Are Solidarity Purchasing Groups a social innovation? A study inspired by social forces. Partecipazione e Conflitto, 10(3), 955-982. https://doi.org/10.1285/i20356609v10i3p955
Maestripieri, L. (2021). The Covid-19 Pandemics: Why Intersectionality Matters. Frontiers in Sociology, 6, 642-662. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2021.642662
Marí-Klose, P., & Moreno-Fuentes, F. J. (2013). The Southern European Welfare model in the post-industrial order: Still a distinctive cluster? European Societies, 15(4), 475-492. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2013.835853
Nurhasanah, I., Medina-García, C., Otieno, J. N., Gebreyohannes, W., Paidakaki, A., Van den Broeck, P., Atif, A., Canavate, C., Muchiri, C., Gebrehiwet, D., Bellamacina, D., Sitotaw, E., Yasmin, F., Rotondo, F., Moulaert, F., Zevallos, G., Valasa, G., Chen, H., Ritta, J., & Danandjojo, Y (2020). Social Innovation in the Face of COVID-19 Pandemic. https://bit.ly/3qAAzI8
Ranci, C., Beckfield, J., Bernardi, L., & Parma, A. (2021). New Measures of Economic Insecurity Reveal its Expansion Into EU Middle Classes and Welfare States. Social Indicators Research, 158(2), 539-562. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-021-02709-4
Ruspini, E. (2019). Millennial Men, Gender equality and Care: The dawn of a revolution? Teorija in Praksa, 56(4), 985-1000.
Sevilla, A., & Smith, S. (2020). Baby steps: The gender division of childcare during the COVID-19 pandemic. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 36(Supplement_1), S169-S186. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/graa027
Small, M. L. (2011). How to Conduct a Mixed Methods Study: Recent Trends in a Rapidly Growing Literature. Annual Review of Sociology, 37(1), 57-86. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.012809.102657
Taylor-Gooby, P. (2004). New Risks, new Welfare. The transformation of the European welfare state. Oxford University Press.
Van Kersbergen, K., & Manow, P. (2009). Religion, class coalitions, and welfare states. Cambridge University Press.
Vesan, P. (2015). Ancora al Sud? I Paesi mediterranei e le riforme delle politiche del lavoro negli anni della crisi economica. Meridiana, 83, 91-119. https://doi.org/10.14
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Lara Maestripieri
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
• The transfer of the copyright of the article to Revista Española de Sociología.
• The assignment to the Revista Española de Sociología of the rights of commercial exploitation of the article to third parties both in the offset and digital formats, as well as to the search engines and platforms that may serve as intermediaries for the sale or knowledge of the article.
