ABSTRACT
Drawing on a study involving 41 men employed as support workers in the Australia Health Care and Social Assistance (HCSA) sector, in this article we investigate where in their lives and how men turn to caring roles. Documenting continuities of men’s caring practices in their work lives and private lives, we present a series of men’s care biographies and add to the literature on masculinity and care work by using the concept of “trajectories of care.” In our usage, this concept complements but is epistemologically distinct from a focus on the critical moments of “caregiving crossroads.” Drawing on Bourdieu’s concept of habitus and bringing it together with Elliott’s definition of caring masculinities, trajectories of care here emphasizes an analysis of how caring dispositions can become sedimented through mundane, everyday practices throughout the lifecourse and make care work desirable and achievable for some men.