The guidebook covers an enormous area. It provides a broad sweep, rather
than technical details on any of the many areas. It provides the why and what
rather than the detailed how-to of investigating unpaid care work. In many
other sources, the topics covered in this guidebook are discussed in a very
academic or very technical way which excludes many people. The approach
used here is to provide the basics in as simple a way as possible, but also to
provide references so that interested readers can go further on their own.
We have adopted the broad-brush and non-technical approach because we
hope that this guidebook will stimulate groups to take up the issues through
advocacy. If advocacy is our main aim, we want as many people as possible
involved, and we want as many people as possible to understand enough to
make the arguments themselves.
Some of the issues covered in this guidebook involve statistical and
economic terms and concepts. The guidebook is written for non-economists
and non-statisticians. However, it is the statisticians who produce the figures
and the economists who build the economic models which provide the building
blocks on which much policy is made. If the non-economists and nonstatisticians
want to influence the statisticians and economists, and engage
them in argument, they need to know the basic terms and concepts.