#16 - Do we even care anymore?
From dog-sitting to platform economy (with a dog whose breed I totally forgot)
Hi there,
How have you been?
I’ve been meeting a lot of dogs and people this past week: Tato (as in potato), two Milos, Binky, Jack and many more. And you can tell that summer really changes dogs’ lives. Not only the heat and the different walk times. Most of the dogs that I met were being looked after by someone other than their (human) parents. Even, as I’m writing this, our downstairs neighbours are looking after a dog that they have NOT INTRODUCED ME TO YET. Amy is curious about the barking but I take personal offense.
Many of you have been called upon to fill that care gap created while the dog parents were on vacation. Human siblings (adults and kids), parents’ friends (like in Tito’s case), or until then strangers contacted through internet platforms. This last type of connection is how Chef (dog) and Roxy (human) met each other.
This is the moment when I should have remembered Chef’s breed, but I don’t. It’s not a pug, something that sounds completely different. The important bit here is that I met him at Haggerston Park, while Roxy and him were chatting (more like listening) to a lady who was very candidly explaining how dog breeders cared more about their income than for puppies’ wellbeing. As her monologue was quickly turning into a slight xenophobe rant towards Irish people, I decided that it was my cue to stop patting her staffy and keep moving on.
When Roxy also moved in the direction we were going I asked her how her dog was called. ‘It’s not actually mine’, she said. She had been looking after him for a couple of weeks, while his parents were on vacation. They had matched through Trusted House Sitters (this is not an ad, but hey… it could be if you work there), which fitted nicely with Roxy’s travels across continents. Originally from the United States, long time living in Australia, this is her second stay in London - I’d guess is a very cool way to get to live the daily life experience of this city.
I know that every dog parent appreciates that someone can look after their dog when needed. Every (human) parent also knows how crucial, and I really mean life and death situation, caring for a child is. Or for an elder. Or when we are sick. Care is crucial. Not only at individual level. Not only when I get the man flu and I really need Lauren to get me orange juice and Amy to lay next to me. At social level we need caring for each other: without it society cannot continue to exist.
Now I’m going to detach from Chef’s story, and go a bit more social.
Care, in our current western societies, is highly gendered. Is usually women who have been assigned these caring activities, often justified as a ‘natural’ predisposition for it. This means that mothers are expected to look after the children in a family, and when they started being incorporated into the labour market, particularly for professional roles, families hired other women to care for the kids that were unattended. These caring women usually are less white and less wealthy, and in current global movements they often move from third- to first-world countries to care for whiter and wealthier kids, leaving their own children under the care of… other women — often grandmothers.
Feminists made this important analytical contribution: there are activities (labour) regarded economically relevant, and are therefore paid. There is a huge group of activities, however, that are necessary to maintain our lives and economy, such as caring for dogs/kids or cooking, that are equally relevant but are often under or not paid at all. This kind of labour is called social reproduction.
Silvia Federici, an Italian feminist, has a quote that sums it up nicely: ‘what you call love I call it unpaid labour’.
In my view, this concept has such a crucial relevance to understand the world we live in.
Much of the obscene accumulation of wealth that we see nowadays is based on this primordial - and I insist, gendered - distinction. Despite that we literally cannot live without them. In turn, we see that the newest bubble based on the expropiation of other people’s work gets record fundings by the week.
By these funny coincidences in life, I saw a job today at a London University about researching how platform economy is shaping family relations. They say platforms have permeated our family relations, commodified our daily activities, individualising (alienating?) our existence in the world. And I cannot stop asking myself: do we live in a world in which not only are the economic resources accumulated in just a few hands, but are we also in a world in which the access to our networks, through which we can rely on the care of our family and community, is also privatised through these platforms?
I guess Trusted House Sitters will not be that keen in sponsoring this newsletter after these questions.
Plot twist.
In a one in a million (maybe a thousand) odds, I saw Chef walking down the street! Like just saw it as I took a rest from writing and headed to the park with Amy. Ran to say hi to his parents, who happily agreed on having a pawtrait taken. Aren’t they sweet?
We exchanged contact details and I got to clarify Chef’s breed. He is a Brussels Griffon. Won’t forget again. You can check his Instagram profile here, but honestly, after that whole platform rant, wouldn't it be more fitting to just meet him the old-fashioned way on the street?
Roxy runs this really cool non-profit that helps artists from under-represented backgrounds build their music careers. Worth checking out here.
Before I sign off, if you liked this story, I highly recommend checking this other one as well:
That’s all for this week… catch you in the park!