As "ajudas": O cuidado que nao diz seu nome1

Abstract

Providing care is a challenge in our societies. There are countless forms and relationships under which it is purveyed. In this text, we focus on one of these configurations: the care work that is recognized as "help". In these situations, activities are not construed as "work"; moreover, those who carry them out do not identify themselves as fulfilling an "obligation". Such actions distinguish themselves from the two meanings associated with care work (a professional job or an obligation resulting from a status) and take on another connotation, that of "help". Such understanding determines both the modalities of exchanges (economic, affective and symbolic) and the forms of retribution (monetary or otherwise). Our approach is based on data from ethnographic work conducted with poor families in the city of Sao Paulo.