The affective value of care: Assessing the outcomes of social support

This paper argues that efforts to assess the outcomes of social care delivery ought to emphasise the generation of affective value . This value derives from the affective labour of caregiving – and the novel subjectivities that are the principal expressions of this labour – as it is organised in the delivery of social support. We ground this claim in analysis of qualitative data collected within housing assistance, community mental health, and substance use treatment services in New South Wales and Victoria. In presenting our findings, we highlight links between the affective labour of caregiving, the embodied and relational experiences of care in organisational settings, and the ways participants spoke of the outcomes of this work. We argue that these findings offer important new insights into the value of social care during a period of profound transition in the Australian care economy. Shaped by the ongoing marketisation of service delivery across this economy, efforts to formally assess the impact of social care in Australia are increasingly cast in terms of measurable service outcomes. Our analysis highlights what these measures often miss. Beyond the transactional service outcomes common to existing evaluation frameworks, we seek to highlight the affective value of care by indicating what else the labour of caring for vulnerable individuals may be shown to afford. Social care yields affective value to the extent that it facilitates the emergence of subjects with the sensitivities, capacities and ‘self-awareness’ necessary for the realisation of service goals like wellbeing, belonging, security, hope and recovery. We close by assessing the implications of this analysis for thinking about the value of social care delivery, and how it comes to matter.