A Pluralistic insight on care value: Exuding from sharing gift of unpaid work at home

Abstract

This article aims at elaborately comprehending the value of unpaid work at home so as to envision social reconstruction of care. This study reviews two puzzles: being sieged by materialistic monism and the ambivalence of care theory in applying to everyday empirical world which have hitherto made the value of unpaid work at home invisible. Thus, by reconsidering own dignity and purpose of the private-familial sphere in one's life (Elshtain, 1993) and to elaborately comprehend care value, this study addresses the puzzle using the insights from pluralistic behavior economics by Van Staveren (2001). This article contributes to care/unpaid work studies through (1) inviting unquantifiable care value for discussion by rejecting materialistic monism, (2) dissociating the "prisoner of love" framework from paid carework by shedding light on care value exuded from sharing experience of giving in private-familial relational realm.