Promoting basic social and health care work through education – global North and global South in comparison

Abstract

In this chapter we discuss the function and recognition of basic social and healthcare work in the global context of ‘the totality of societally recognized work’ (Glucksman 1995) and the mainstream educational structures and hierarchies. It builds on lessons learnt during the ReWell Project (2014- 2016) that focused on promoting regional wellbeing through adult and vocational education. The case studies in the course Vocational Education and Culture in University of Tampere, research theses of participant students and joint intensive seminars in Tanzania, between university staff, students and regional actors from Finland, Tanzania and Uganda were significant sources of information for this paper1 A pragmatic ground for the comparison is the joint project, but there is a more political and ethical reason. Although globalization is mainly considered as an industrial and commercial project, it also includes distinctive solutions in basic social and health care. Despite being a service, which is produced and consumed locally and simultaneously, basic social and health care is embedded in global industrial clusters and commodity chains. Still, minor attention is paid to the conceptual and practical diversity in organizing care work in different geo-economic and geo-political locations. The comparison between the global North and South, represented by Finland, Tanzania and Uganda remains fragmentary, but intends to raise discussion about the interrelatedness of local and global divisions of labour, and relations between local and global production and consumption (Narotzky1997; Kerswell 2011). While Tanzania and Uganda share quite much with other countries in East- Africa, Finland can be considered rather similar with other Nordic countries.