Toward a Caring Economy? The Role of Care in the European Union’s Covid-19 Recovery Policies

The Covid-19 crisis has been seen as an opportunity for a paradigm change toward a caring economy. This article analyzes the role of care in the European Union’s (EU) €750 billion recovery package and whether the package has contributed to such a paradigm change or followed existing policy legacies. It builds on the literature on policy paradigms and feminist economics debates about care. Based on a qualitative, interpretative reading of policy documents, this article asks (1) what policy paradigms related to care underpin the EU’s Covid-19 recovery policies and their national implementation and (2) what kind of changes and continuities in care-related discursive constructions, expenditure, and policy measures these policies entail. Despite providing room for care-related investment, the recovery policies were constrained by existing policy paradigms and path-dependencies rooted in the devaluation and invisibility of care, which restricted care-related investment to physical infrastructure and prioritized efficiency-enhancing measures.