Double Fragility: The Care Crisis in the Corona Crisis

L&R Social Research, together with the University of Bielefeld (Priv.-Doz. Alexandra Scheele) and Joanneum Research (Helene Schiffbänker), submitted a project to the German Volkswagen Foundation as part of a covid project call after the first lockdown. Of the total of 1,105 applications received, our joint project “Double Fragility: The Care Crisis in the Corona Crisis” was also selected.

In this theoretical and empirical project, we investigate how parents in so-called system-relevant occupations requiring on-site deployment organised childcare during the closure of childcare facilities, following the assumption that the Corona Crisis not only exposed a pre-existing structural crisis in childcare, but also created a double fragility for working parents with care responsibilities. The core of the study is the implementation of company case studies with parents, works councillors and HR managers in the food retail sector as well as in the health sector. In addition, a media and policy analysis will be conducted from March 2020 to the end of 2021 and the data on the use of childcare during this period will be analysed.

Based on the concept of antifragility, perspectives for a more resilient childcare system in the future will then be developed.