Professors Nora Nagels (Université du Québec à Montréal) and Françoise Montambeault (Université de Montréal) are offering two scholarships of CAD $10,000 per year for two years, in addition to internal and external funding opportunities (provincial scholarships – FRQSC, PBEEE; federal – SSHRC; and ERIGAL). These scholarships aim to support the development of a doctoral research project connected to their study on municipal integrated care systems in Mexico City (Mexico) and Bogotá (Colombia).
The goal of the project is to understand and explain the design and implementation of municipal public policies that seek to institutionalize integrated care systems at the local level, with a specific focus on comparing the UTOPIAS program (Mexico City) and the Manzanas de Cuidado program (Bogotá). The project examines whether these policies can be considered feminist and participatory. It is funded through a SSHRC Insight Development Grant.
Eligibility criteria:
- Admission to the PhD program in Political Science at the Université du Québec à Montréal (Doctorat en science politique - Université du Québec à Montréal) or at the Université de Montréal (Doctorat en science politique - Université de Montréal);
- A Master’s degree in political science or a related discipline;
- Proficiency in French and Spanish;
- Strong academic record.
For more information, please contact: Nora Nagels nagels.nora@uqam.ca or Francoise Montambeault, francoise.montambeault@umontreal.ca
Project Description
This research project examines the operationalization of integrated care systems at the local level in Mexico City (Mexico) and Bogotá (Colombia), given that no national care system has yet been established in either country. Through these systems, care becomes a human right and a fundamental dimension of citizenship, structuring social protection regimes through universal, intersectoral, and solidarity-based policies aimed at co-responsibility and the redistribution of care work. In Mexico and Colombia, these systems are implemented through the Manzanas del Cuidado in Bogotá and the Unidades de Transformación y Organización y la Armonía Social (UTOPÍAS) in Mexico City (mainly concentrated in Iztapalapa). Located in vulnerable urban neighborhoods, these physical spaces for care and recreation not only contribute to the revitalization and citizen appropriation of public space, but also offer services that collectivize care work traditionally carried out by women in the private sphere (daycare, collective kitchens, laundry services, elder care, family health services). They also provide services aimed at supporting “those who care” (psychological support, hairdressing, massages, legal advice, etc.). The goal of these spaces is twofold: to “build community” in public spaces through citizen participation in defining local priorities, and to care for those who provide care. Although currently framed in similar ways by municipal authorities as participatory policies supporting a local integrated care system, Bogotá’s Manzanas del Cuidado seem to more explicitly incorporate the feminist perspectives at the origin of the idea of integrated care systems, while Mexico City’s UTOPÍAS appear to have emerged first as an initiative for public space revitalization and only later appropriated as care spaces. How can we explain the differences in the formulation and operationalization of these public policies in Bogotá and Mexico City? How do these differences manifest in the daily implementation of these policies—namely, in the practices of street-level bureaucrats and in their interactions with political authorities, local social organizations, and citizens? acteur.es de la mise en oeuvre (bureaucrates du niveau de la rue) et dans leurs interactions avec les autorités politiques, les organisations sociales locales et les citoyen.nes?
The general objective of this research project is to understand the diverse trajectories that have shaped the formulation and implementation of the Manzanas del Cuidado and the UTOPÍAS, as well as to assess their “feminist” character—that is, their potential to reduce gender inequalities by redistributing care work and establishing co-responsibility among women, men, communities, and the state. Based on a comparative study of the UTOPÍAS and the Manzanas del Cuidado, the project pursues three specific objectives: 1) to empirically document the gendering trajectories and feminist scope of the formulation and implementation of local integrated care systems in Bogotá and Mexico City, which are still understudied in the literature due to their recent nature; 2) to explain their differences through a comparative analysis of the constellations of actors involved, including the interactions among political authorities, local social organizations, and citizens, including feminist actors; and 3) to develop innovative methodological tools to enrich the literature and practices of qualitative methods, drawing on our experience of conducting fieldwork in pairs and with participating students, in order to operationalize ethnography as a collaborative approach.acteur.es y participant, soit les interactions entre autorités politiques, organisations sociales locales et citoyen.nes, dont féministes; et 3) développer des outils méthodologiques novateurs pour enrichir la littérature et les pratiques en méthodes qualitatives à partir de nos expériences de travail de terrain en binôme et avec les étudiant.es impliqué.es, afin d'opérationnaliser la méthode de l'ethnographie comme approche collaborative.