Care work, Caretariat and mobilisations as practices of Caretizenship: sociological considerations from the Portuguese case of an informal carers' movement

Abstract

This article analyses the informal carers' movement in Portugal as a case study to rethink work, care, and political subjectivity. First, it examines how the debate on care challenges androcentric conceptions of work. Second, it revisits the notion of a new care-based social subject, reflecting on the political agency emerging from caregiving experiences. Third, it examines the movement's repertoires of action, highlighting traits of self-organised mobilisation. Fourth, it analyses the role of the state, torn between familialist paradigms and public responses, and the political paradoxes posed by the recognition of unpaid care. The article proposes an expanded sociology of work that includes social reproduction and care as central terrains. It aims to demonstrate that recognizing unpaid care expands our imagination of the working class and the emancipation of labour. It stresses how care practices hold transformative political potential and can reshape understandings of citizenship, political contestation and collective action.