‘I Really Don't Have Time to Talk and Listen to All Those People’: Care Responsibilities and Privileged Irresponsibility in the Devolution of Social Services in the Netherlands

Abstract

This paper analyses the micro-scale geographies of care within newly devolved social services in The Netherlands. Across Europe, welfare reforms have reconfigured the spatial organisation of care, shifting responsibilities to municipalities and expecting closer collaboration between citizens, civil-society organisations and local governments. We analyse how these spatial and institutional transformations shape the everyday negotiation of care responsibilities within Buren Helpen Elkaar, a locally organised initiative that mobilises volunteers to support residents (primarily elderly people) to continue living independently at home. Drawing on Tronto's political ethics of care, we investigate how care is interpreted, allocated and enacted across local actors. The analysis is based on qualitative data from thirty-six interviews, participatory observations and policy and organisational documents. Our findings show that, despite its promise of fostering more cooperative citizen-state relations, the initiative is marked by dynamics of ‘privileged irresponsibility’. Professionals and volunteers withdraw from particular tasks by claiming to be ‘too busy’, by narrowing definitions of legitimate need or by shifting responsibility to other actors. By tracing how responsibility is negotiated and redistributed in place, the paper offers a micro-scale account of devolved welfare that foregrounds the relational dynamics shaping local care provision. It also shows how everyday practices can undermine the intentions of welfare reforms and contribute to uneven outcomes across communities.