Social Inclusion· 2026Q2
Bounded Transport, Mobility Justice, and Claims for Recognition Among Live‐in Care Workers
- 1citations
- Q2SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
Agency-organized door-to-door transport, termed 'bounded transport' by Slovak live-in care workers, is a critical but overlooked infrastructure enabling transnational care work in Austria, organizing labor mobility and redistributing risks.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- 'Bounded transport' refers to agency-organized, door-to-door transport for live-in care workers from Central/Eastern Europe to Austria.
- This transport is a critical, yet largely invisible, infrastructure for transnational care labor.
- It organizes worker mobility while redistributing risks (temporal, financial, bodily) to the workers.
- Fatal transport accidents have transformed this service into a site of social contestation and collective action.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
European long‐term care systems increasingly depend on regularly commuting live‐in care workers from Central and Eastern Europe, yet the mobility infrastructures sustaining this labour remain largely overlooked. This article examines bounded transport, an emic term used by Slovak live‐in care workers, brokerage agencies, and transport providers to describe agency‐organised door‐to‐door transport between workers’ homes and care recipients in Austria. It argues that bounded transport constitutes a critical yet invisible infrastructure of transnational care, organising labour mobility while redistributing temporal, financial, and bodily risks. Drawing on policy analysis, online ethnography, advocacy materials, and semi‐structured interviews, the article demonstrates how repeated fatal transport accidents transformed an ordinary feature of cross‐border care into a site of social contestation and collective action. By conceptualising mobility as an integral component of care rather than its external condition, the article contributes to debates on long‐term care governance and mobility justice by showing how live‐in care workers transform experiences of invisibility and vulnerability into claims for recognition and solidarity in the governance of European care regimes.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Social Inclusion, 2026 · DOI ↗
Continue with a free account
Ask the paper: 3 free questions a day about this paper; save it, get its citation, new summaries every day for your field. Takeaways are Premium.
Continue free on the webSign in with Google or Apple; no card needed. You come back to this paper.
On your phone:
Field: Demography
DemographySocial Sciences