‘I can’t just go up to a person to ask what’s going on.’ How Dutch urbanites’ accounts of non-engagement enhance our understanding of urban care

Laurine Blonk, Margo Trappenburg and Femmianne Bredewold
Additional contact information
Laurine Blonk: University of Humanistic Studies, the Netherlands
Margo Trappenburg: University of Humanistic Studies, the Netherlands
Femmianne Bredewold: University of Humanistic Studies, the Netherlands

Urban Studies, 2022, vol. 59, issue 6, 1185-1201

Abstract: In the context of increasing appeals to informal care in Western welfare state policies, questions concerning urban sociality acquire new significance. This paper aims to contribute to the emergent thinking on ‘urban care’ by situating it in policy debates concerning care responsibilities between citizens. We used small-scale focus groups among urban residents in The Hague (the Netherlands) to inquire into the accounts urbanites give of engaging or not engaging with perceived care needs of a stranger. Informed by Goffman’s ‘civil inattention’, we found that accounts of non-engagement highlight urbanites’ orientation towards maintaining friendly social interactions in the face of strange or worrisome situations. Urbanites feel that they should respect people’s choices even if these might hurt them. They fear that interference might be humiliating and they attribute to themselves the task of sticking to normality, while family members, friends or professionals might take on the task to intervene. This careful non-engagement, contrasted with long-standing accounts of urban indifference, enhances our understanding of urban care.

Keywords: care responsibilities; civil inattention; informal care; stranger; urban care; 关怀责任; å…¬æ°‘ç– å¿½; é žæ­£å¼ å…³æ€€; 陌生人; 城市关怀 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098021997013 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:59:y:2022:i:6:p:1185-1201

DOI: 10.1177/0042098021997013

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Urban Studies from Urban Studies Journal Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().