Time to care? The temporal structuring of care work

Organizations exert control over workers’ time-use; some more than others. This paper contributes to studies of temporal structuring with a case study of a home care unit, where care workers’ time-use is planned down to the minute. Drawing on feminist theorizations of time, this study problematizes the ‘time’ that is assumed to be structured through temporal structuring. The question addressed is: how, and by whom, is care work temporally structured, and what internal contradictions arise in this process? Through the notion of process time (Davies, 1994), a temporality necessary for certain forms of care work, the study highlights internal contradictions between the necessary conditions for care work, and the actually existing temporal structures provided by formal control tools. Ethnographic materials are presented that show how nonmanagerial staff are sometimes able to overcome these contradictions. This finding forms the basis for an immanent critique of professional care organizations, with practical and political implications.