Knitting a Care Network in the City: Social Actors in Grassroots Organizations and Local Governments

This article examines the interaction between grassroots care organizations, street‐level bureaucrats, and local public policy as a key interface in the construction and sustainability of local welfare infrastructures. The analysis focuses on the experiences and everyday practices of women leading community‐based care organizations in a suburban district of Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina. These networks have emerged through local policies that link self‐managed grassroots initiatives with municipal governments, mediated by the day‐to‐day practices of street‐level bureaucrats. The resulting care infrastructure produces a spatialized network that is dense in some areas and sparser in others, due to variations in community needs and local concentrations of social vulnerability. Most organizations are led and sustained by women from lower‐income groups who seek to address basic needs unmet by both the public care system and the labor market. This article centers the voices of these women, illuminating their role not only as care workers but also as political actors mediating between communities and the state. Drawing on one‐on‐one interviews conducted remotely during 2021, this research explores the tensions, capacities, and potential of these care networks as vehicles for building transformative forms of social organization and community‐based welfare governance. The study also addresses how gender shapes differences in organizational leadership and management dynamics. Lastly, it reflects on current political and media debates in Argentina that call into question the autonomy of grassroots organizations and the future direction of state‐society relations in care provision.