Even if Romanian migration to Italy had already been intensively researched, debating the topic through the lens of Bourdieu’s concept of habitus was undoubtedly original. The author has undertaken an exploratory approach of great complexity, a laborious and theoretically difficult analysis that she managed to complete in an exemplary manner.
Within this original theoretical development of the concept of transnational habitus in the context of care work, the author makes at least three valuable scientific contributions: 1) the concept of „made with care transnational kinship” which places care practices at the basis of the kinship relations built by some caregivers with the cared-for persons, 2) the concept of „reverse hysteresis”, the result of a mismatch between habitus and field regarding the country of origin and 3) the concept of „care-featured transnational habitus”, an unique, cleft habitus resulting from the particular context of care work. Through all these valences, Rosa Maria Radogna’s research undoubtedly contributes to the scientific development of migration studies, but also of studies on kinship or studies on the segmented labor market and secondary sectors of the economy.
Raluca Popescu
