Toward a Caring Economy? The Role of Care in the European Union’s Covid-19 Recovery Policies

The COVID-19 crisis has been seen as an opportunity for a paradigm change toward a caring economy. This article analyzes the role of care in the European Union’s (EU) €750 billion recovery package and whether the package has contributed to such a paradigm change or followed existing policy legacies. It builds on the literature on policy paradigms and feminist economics debates about care. Based on a qualitative, interpretative reading of policy documents, this article asks (1) what policy paradigms related to care underpin the EU’s COVID-19 recovery policies and their national implementation and (2) what kind of changes and continuities in care-related discursive constructions, expenditure, and policy measures these policies entail. Despite providing room for care-related investment, the recovery policies were constrained by existing policy paradigms and path-dependencies rooted in the devaluation and invisibility of care, which restricted care-related investment to physical infrastructure and prioritized efficiency-enhancing measures.HIGHLIGHTSThe EU’s COVID-19 recovery policies provided room for public investment in care.Existing policy paradigms that devalue care shaped policies and implementation.Care investments focused on physical infrastructure and efficiency, not care work.EU recovery policies did not lead to a paradigm change toward a caring economy.Investment in social infrastructure may not advance feminist economic ideas.