Human care work and emotion : a call to re-examine theory

The shift to post-industrialism in western societies has been typified by an emphasis on worker knowledge as a commodity and growth in service work. Sociology provides a strong foundation to understand this growth as more than just a different type of physical or intellectual work, but also as a form of organisationally defined emotional labour. However, much of this consideration has centred on retail or personal service work, rather than the expanding field of human care service work. This form of service work requires expert knowledge, technical proficiency, emotional involvement and ability with information technology. Further, this work (especially when it involves inequality, poverty, trauma or grief) makes different emotional demands on service professionals. Together, these factors suggest the need for a re-consideration of emotion as it relates to human care service work. Drawing on recent research into the professional aged care provided by Nurse Practitioner’s, as well as the unpaid care provided by family members to cancer patients, this paper explores the implications of these trends. On one hand, shifting demands in human care work produce new personal demands on service professionals. On the other hand, shifting boundaries in care work mean informal carers are required to increasingly take on the emotionally demanding task of balancing family and care-work relationships. The paper will argue that sociological considerations of emotion as it relates to human care service work could benefit from a renewed role for agency and advocate for interactive (in addition to structural) approaches to understanding human care work.