The place of care in a large Belgian modernist complex

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of care, as well as the extent to which it is undervalued in Western societies, emphasising the instrumentalization and neoliberal logic that care is subject to. Since the 1970s, various feminist theorists have developed ethics of care. This evolving and controversial ethic has become a critical tool in sociology, philosophy, economics, and public policy analysis but is still underdeveloped in architecture and urban planning. This paper adopts the feminist ethic of care to analyse and criticise the evolution of a modernist social housing complex. The Cité de Droixhe was built in the 1950s to offer various facilities, 2000 rental social housing units, and vast green areas in Liège (Belgium). However, since its creation, it has undergone major transformations including the demolition of nearly 1000 units. In this qualitative inductive research, an interdisciplinary approach between architecture and social sciences was proposed, combining archival research, semi-structured interviews, and participatory observations. The ethic of care is mobilised both as a research and methodological posture and as an object of analysis. The data collected led to questioning the place of care in the evolution of the large complex under different themes: the facilitation of reproductive work, the valorisation of care professions, and the attention paid to proximity and the daily life of the neighbourhood inhabitants. By highlighting the integration and loss of care within the different transformations of the housing estate, this study shows the importance of reasserting the value of care and making it a collective responsibility, contributing to drawing perspectives for a more feminist, equal, and caring city.

Recognising the regenerative impacts of Canadian women tourism social entrepreneurs through a feminist ethic of care lens

Purpose>The overarching aim of this project is to understand the role women tourism social entrepreneurs (TSEs) play in contributing to regenerative practices in Canada.Design/methodology/approach>Semi-structured interviews were carried out with women food TSEs with snowball sampling. This paper challenges the assumption that the masculine experience is the human experience. Accordingly, this research is informed by a feminist ethic of care lens to recognise the important role of Canadian women TSEs. Methodologically, the authors employed the strategies of a constructivist grounded theory to guide the analysis (Charmaz, 2011). This process involved carefully engaging in a close line by line reading of the transcripts, developing codes based on the authors’ dealings with the data including summarising, synthesising and sorting the data (Charmaz, 2011).Findings>The analysis revealed three categories: (1) Adopting a regenerative mindset and enhancing well-being, (2) Supporting the consumption of real food and (3) Educating communities for regenerative and just futures. The analysis revealed the importance of women TSEs in adopting a regenerative and caring mindset to enhance the well-being of their communities and beyond.Research limitations/implications>The study focusses on the learnings from 11 entrepreneurs from Canada. There is a scope to expand the discussion with more interviews. The impact of this pandemic on the small businesses resulted in affecting the researchers’ participation by presenting some unique challenges in participant recruitment. Maybe the studies in the near future will focus on grounding the research papers based on other sexual orientations and indigenous social entrepreneurs.Practical implications>The authors hope future studies centre diversity and attend to the role of women in their communities to better under the diverse contributions. The work presented here is part of a broader study on the role and impact of women TSEs and so only reveals the tip of the Canadian iceberg. Forthcoming studies will attend to some of the gender-specific barriers faced by women TSEs and the supports required particularly in the wake of COVID-19. The authors hope other scholars continue to build on this work, adopting feminist approaches to enhance our understanding of the role women play in contributing to just, caring and regenerative futures.Social implications>Contributing to Higgins-Desbiolles and Monga's (2021) in-depth case study using an ethic of care to examine an Australian events business supporting homeless individuals, the analysis of the 11 in-depth interviews with Canadian TSE provides evidence of alternative ways women are delivering social value. Using an ethic of care lens has elicited the impacts created by the informants and the ripple effects particularly in light of regenerative practices which are crucial in the tourism sector as borders and destinations reopen to tourism as noted by Ateljevic (2020).Originality/value>There are few studies in the tourism social entrepreneurship literature that recognise the agency and centres the vocies of women. Kimbu and Ngoasong (2016) made a call for more research to understand how women engage in social entrepreneurial activities and benefit their local communities. There are limited analyses on regenerative tourism in practice in the scholarly literature. To respond to this gap the authors examine the regenerative practices of women TSEs in Canada.