Individualising risk: paid care work in the new gig economy

Abstract

This book investigates how paid care work and employment are being transformed by policies of social care individualisation in the context of new gig economies of care. Drawing on a case study of the creation of a new individualised care market under Australias National Disability Insurance Scheme the book provides important insights into possible futures for social care employment where care is treated as an individual consumer service. Bringing together sociological, political science and socio-legal approaches the book demonstrates how, in individualised care markets and with ineffective labour laws, risks of business and employment are devolved to frontline care workers. The book argues for an urgent re-evaluation of current policy approaches to care and for new regulatory approaches to protect workers in diverse forms of employment. Fiona Macdonald is a senior research fellow at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. Her research has centred on the impacts of changing labour markets and employment arrangements, combining ethnographic studies with regulatory and policy analyses.