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Population aging has positioned as a key demographic change. This paper analyzes the characteristics of older adults in situations of dependence, care strategies and the profile of caregivers for Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, El Salvador and Uruguay. The population in a situation of functional dependence is mostly female and over 75 years old. Between 54% and 70% receive some type of care, with unpaid family care being the main care strategy. Unpaid caregivers are mostly women, under 65, and economically inactive. We evidence a negative relationship between the status of elderly caregiver and employment, that is stronger for women. Although elderly informal care leads to a lower probability of employment among individuals of all ages and income quintiles, the employment gap between caregivers and non-caregivers narrows substantially among higher-income people. Improving care for older people would have positive effects on female employment and inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to describe and analyze the reconversion experiences of four social organizations to sustain the social bond and collective care in popular neighborhoods of the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires (AMBA), Argentina, during the Covid-19 pandemic. Based on qualitative research work with an ethnographic approach, conducted remotely between July and September 2020, we i) reconstructed the social context and characterized the activities of the socio-community organizations studied in AMBA, before and during the pandemic; ii) sketched images such as the collective "la olla" organization, which describe the community provision of care; and iii) showed how, in the context of restricted movement, the organizations had to deploy tactics to "contain," "accompany" and take care of themselves and others. In line with debates about an economy of care, which produces values surreptitiously appropriated by the rest of the economy, this paper focuses on those resulting from socio-community practices related to: food --"la olla" and "la fila"--, health, and socio-affective --"containment"--. This proposal is intended to contribute to the theoretical-political field of discussion, in which it is situated, on the paradox between the centrality of (socio-community) care, for the production of social welfare, and its insufficient recognition in economic, social, and political terms. Methodologically, the paper portrays the challenges --for social research-- of reading and interpreting practices when co-presenciality is technologically mediated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mandatory confinement decreed in Argentina in the early 2020s positioned the security forces as essential workers. The police/pandemic/confinement relationship thus revolved around two differentiated poles of meaning: one that heralded a police force that takes care of use and another that denounced police violence. This paper explores this debate on the basis of three inseparable concerns: the police roles and policing practices that encourage these current crisis scenarios; the lessons they teach us given their potential reiteration; and, above all, the local and regional data revealed that allow us to reflect empirically and politically on our specific Latin American experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]