The care economy in pandemic: Updating the tasks for territorial communities

The main goal of the paper is to examine the trends in care work under the impact of challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and determine the role of territorial communities in the promotion of the care economy benchmarks (Nancy Folbre theory). The systematization of Folbre’s studies and her approach to solving the problem of disregard of the role of care work in social reproduction emphasizes the need to integrate some types of care work into the system of social services at various management levels. It will have a positive impact on gender inequality reduction and improve the living conditions of vulnerable groups of the population. Finding the solution to this scientific problem is very relevant since, in the first place, social inequality and the burden on society members providing care services (for charge and for free) increased in the Covid-19 pandemic, and in the second place, the issue of providing quality services and securing comfortable living conditions for the population are among the major tasks for local governments in conditions of resources and authorities decentralization and development of territorial communities established in the course of administrative-territorial reform in Ukraine. The subject is examined in the research in the following logical sequence: 1) analysis of the care work trends in the context of gender equality since historically, free of charge care works are mostly done by women; 2) consideration of behavioral factor in the reaction of the members of territorial communities to the challenges in care industry caused by the pandemic; 3) definition of the role of territorial communities in the promotion of care economy benchmarks on a local level in conditions of adopting the Law of Ukraine “On Social Services” and replacing the centralized system of social services provision by the development of social services. The research empirically verifies and theoretically proves that territorial communities should be the key care economy development entities and introduce its principles at their territories.