‘Grandpa Lives in Paradise Now’: Biological Precarity and the Global Economy of Debility

Abstract

This paper examines the relations and the tensions between debility and disability in global contexts defined by complex forms of bio-social precarity. My focus is Baan Kamlangchay, in Thailand, a care home providing care for older people with dementia and Alzheimer's disease from the global North. I treat Baan Kamlangchay as one concrete example of emerging circuits of transnational care/reproductive labour in order to investigate the interrelations between disability and wider global bio-political inequalities. Using the concept of ‘biolegitimacy’, I discuss the power dynamics in the relationships between the racialised and gendered care workers in the centre and (white) disabled residents. I argue that debility, understood as the flexible gradation of dis/ability and in/capacity, allows us to better understand these novel forms of embodied precarity and their political implications in global contexts.

Sending Granny to Chiang Mai: debating global outsourcing of care for the elderly

“…The capacity of elderly people from the Global North to pay for this level of care in Thailand reflects global disparities in wages and wealth (Kolářová 2015). On the question of time, when one of us (Jill) spent two-and-a-half weeks in the summer of 2015 as a participant observer, joining the residents and their caregivers in their daily routines at two care homes in Thailand specializing in patients from German-speaking countries with dementia, time did stand out as a key aspect differentiating care homes in Thailand from comparable institutions in Switzerland.…”

“…Low wages in the Global South and the disparity of wealth between Global North and South that allow for such time-intensive care do, however, demand critical consideration. The capacity of elderly people from the Global North to pay for this level of care in Thailand reflects global disparities in wages and wealth (Kolářová 2015).…”

Disability studies and development geography: Empirical connections, theoretical resonances, and future directions

“…One interesting phenomenon has been the rise of people from the Global North/minority world in need of care migrating to other countries. Kateřina Kolářová's () study of Baan Kamlangchay, a care center in Thailand, highlights the role of ideas about the “exotic tropics” and gendered expectations around caregiving in this phenomenon. Advertising for the center includes images that betray a neocolonial mentality, such as photos with one male resident surrounded by three young Thai women (Kolářová, , p. 82).…”

“…Kateřina Kolářová's () study of Baan Kamlangchay, a care center in Thailand, highlights the role of ideas about the “exotic tropics” and gendered expectations around caregiving in this phenomenon. Advertising for the center includes images that betray a neocolonial mentality, such as photos with one male resident surrounded by three young Thai women (Kolářová, , p. 82). Kolářová is careful to note that most of the people who are in care homes abroad may not have a choice; a site like Baan Kamlangchay may be the only type of place some people “can still afford to be old and to be ill” (, p. 80).…”

“…Advertising for the center includes images that betray a neocolonial mentality, such as photos with one male resident surrounded by three young Thai women (Kolářová, , p. 82). Kolářová is careful to note that most of the people who are in care homes abroad may not have a choice; a site like Baan Kamlangchay may be the only type of place some people “can still afford to be old and to be ill” (, p. 80). Yet in that circulation of money and people, disability in the west itself becomes a source of value within Thailand.…”