The development of long-term care as a European Union policy field: Creating boundaries and rationalities and generating knowledge

Abstract

This article probes how long-term care (LTC) became a distinct European Union (EU) policy field, bringing a longue-durée and qualitative perspective to understanding how the EU overcame limited competence in this area. The article draws on Foucault’s governmentality and genealogical approach to answer a series of research questions that expose the boundary work and the knowledges involved in the construction of this new policy field. The article draws on an extensive archive of official EU documents from 1985 to 2024. We conclude that LTC emerged through a complex 40-year process of defining and producing knowledge on the meaning and distinctiveness of LTC in relation to ageing, healthcare, social protection, gender equality and childcare. The key boundary work was around the decoupling of LTC from healthcare and conceiving it especially as a form of care connected to childcare and gender equality. What we have witnessed is the birth of a new policy field at the EU level that has involved a distinct set of processes, rationalities and actions that have relevance across a range of settings.