Making (female) health care work matter

Abstract

Over the last two years, digital media have contributed significantly to increasing the visibility of those who are outstandingly challenged by the pandemic. In Germany, the Twitter hashtag #systemrelevant [systemically relevant] initiated a public debate on values and working conditions. Applying the practice-theory-based concept of performative publics, we analyze the formation of this specific public with a special focus on its gendered structure. Results of our mixed-methods approach show how health care work has become the dominant issue of #systemrelevant. Civil society actors and engaged health care workers set the agenda, and journalism primarily responds to these voices. Although care work is performed predominantly by women, most of the attention online is given to men. However, on the level of tweets and linked content, the discourse in #systemrelevant counteracts stereotypical images of women in health care. Overall, the ethnographic data on the most significant collective actor show a continuous tension between symbolic recognition and their struggle for improving working conditions.

Image networks and practice analysis of larger data corpora. An approach to cluster and recontextualize visual practice in social media

“…In our project, we counter this bias with ethnographic case studies on central actors. These case studies confront our overall quantitative mapping strategies with individual practice, including their v isual practice (Reißmann et al, 2023). Nevertheless, also on the basis of aggregated data, it is desirable to compare the performative making of issues on different platforms.…”

“…We do not put emphasis on gendered visuali-ty here (cf. Reißmann, Siemon, Lünenborg, & Raetzsch, 2023, for further information regarding gendered visuality in #systemrelevant). Here, we highlight the quantitative parts of our approach and explore context-sensitive ways of analyzing visual practice of aggregated data.…”