Filling in the gaps during a crisis of care: social and political constructions of lay care work during the HIV/AIDs epidemic and the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa.

The project aims to explore the various social and political constructions of lay care work during the Covid-19 pandemic and the early stages of the HIV/AIDs epidemic in Cape Town.

It will analyse the tensions and possibilities that arise when informal, self-organised and localised care work done by ordinary people interacts with the formal health system, considering how this represents a potential for social change in the health system and broader society.

Analysis will draw on Feminist care theory and De Certeau's concept of "tactics" and "strategies", situating the project in a broader critique of the ways in which the dominant neoliberal and capitalist order produces a "crisis of care" that marginalises care work and stifles possibility for meaningful collaborations between the formal health system and ordinary people doing this work.

Research will involve archival and document-based data such as meeting recordings, media pieces, policy documents, academic and NGO reports, and documentary films regarding lay care work and community-based care during Covid-19 and the early stages of the HIV/AIDS epidemic (90s-early 2000s).

It will also draw on in-depth interviews with participants who were actively involved in and/or able to reflect on the provision of place-based, lay care during both cases.