1. *Much of the first half of the essay was based on the writing of and discussions with Bruce Jennings and Angela Wasunna. I would like to thank Robert Goodin for his illuminating substantive comments and useful editorial suggestions.
2. 1The Swedish cooperative of cognitively impaired persons, JAG, utilizes two sorts of caregivers for their members: the "personal assistants" who provide the hands-on care, and the "service guarantors." Service guarantors are chosen by the member to oversee the quality of care provided by the personal assistant and to express problems that the member herself cannot. They know the client very well, and help to extend the agency of people whose disabilities limit their capacity for agency. But if necessary, the service guarantor will step into the role of personal assistant for theirs is the ultimate responsibility for the care of the JAG member. Sometimes the service guarantor is also the member's personal assistant. Both roles are compensated, even when either is occupied by a family member. For more information, see JAG,The JAG Association(Stockholm, Sweden: 2004). I believe that employed mothers, and less often fathers, play an analogous role for their children, just as a son or daughter with an ailing parent will do for his or her parent even when they hire paid workers to do daily hands-on care, and even though they receive no remuneration for this work. I would maintain that both services are forms of dependency work/care. However, a parent who sees their sole responsibility to be income-earner (and will not, or has no clue of how to step in when a caregiver does not show up) can hardly be said to be a caregiver, although he does serve as a provider and support for the caregiver.
3. 2In the US today, professional care now accounts for twenty per cent of the total paid labor force, according to Nancy Folbre,The Invisible Heart(New York: New Press, 2001), p. 55.
4. Non-contractual Society: A Feminist View
5. 4See for example, Iris Marion Young,Inclusion & Democracy(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).