Connected lives: Care, money management, and gender inequality in low‐income households in times of crisis in Argentina

Abstract

This article uses Viviana Zelizer’s concept of “connected lives” to analyze debt, the social organization of care, and their mutual implications. While Zelizer’s concept opened up a field of inquiry in which intimacy is no longer treated as an “other” (i.e. an external phenomenon independent from the economy), this path involves connecting debts and the organization of care as a single social phenomenon. Inspired by the sociology of Zelizer, this article lays out a framework of analysis that sheds light on money management as a fundamental condition of caregiving and a cornerstone of the social organization of care. At the same time, it analyzes how the defining traits of debt management and caregiving practices interface and reinforce one another. The analysis is based on a qualitative study done in poor households in Argentina during the COVID-19 pandemic.