PAST SUMMITS
2025 Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
From June 5-7, 2025, the Carework Network took the opportunity of its 25th anniversary to reflect on the histories and futures of carework research and the study of care more broadly during a bilingual (Spanish and English) three-day hybrid conference bringing together researchers and advocates from around the world. The conference explored how conversations about care have developed during this period and what factors have informed notable inflection points — not only discrete events such as the 2008 financial crisis and the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic but also more sustained dynamics such as environmental crises, pervasive neoliberal policies, the ongoing importance of migrant careworkers, the changing role of technologies and infrastructures, and renewed global reckonings with the effects of racism and colonialism.
2023 San José, Costa Rica
The Carework Network organized a bilingual (Spanish and English) three-day conference and brought together carework researchers, scholars, and stakeholders from across the globe. More than 250 people attended the Third Global Carework Summit, a substantial increase from previous Summits. Our participants came from 32 countries and represented various interest groups, including academics, activists, and policymakers. Over three days, we held three keynote events, 35 sessions of presentations, two lunchtime conversations with book authors, and many opportunities to network and share ideas. Our theme, “Carework in uncertain times: convergences and divergences around the world,” represents our focus on uncertainty along multiple intersecting dimensions: social, economic, political, and ecological. This uncertainty has long been evident in Latin America and other regions in the global south.
2019 Toronto, Canada
Scholars and advocates working on issues related to elder care, child care, health care, social work, education, political theory of care, social reproduction, work/family, disability studies, careworker health and safety, and related issues are encouraged to submit proposals. The Carework Network is an international organization of scholars and advocates who focus on the caring work of individuals, families, communities, paid caregivers, social service agencies and state bureaucracies. Care needs are shifting globally with changing demographics, disability movements, and climate change driven environmental crises. Our mission is to address critical issues related to carework, such as how identities influence carework; how inequality structures carework; how caring work is recognized and compensated; how state policies influence the distribution of care; working conditions of care; and whether and to what extent citizens have a right to receive, and a right to provide, care.
