Proposals for a Caring Economy

Offering models of care beyond capitalist constraints

For too long, questions of care provision and inclusion have been shaped by economic justifications. This has led to the deprivation of care to individuals and communities based on capitalist assumptions about what and who can be cared for. Proposals for a Caring Economy takes these assumptions to task. Moving between examples focused on immigration and agriculture, patients and art audiences, green energy transitions and unhoused people, prison abolitionists and clients of domestic violence services, the contributors here argue that we need new ways to conceptualize care and its applications.

Proposals for a Caring Economy articulates an economy that situates care at the forefront; sees the preservation of individual, community, and environmental wellbeing as the primary good; and focuses attention on building a sustainable economy of caring that will radically transform social connections and possibilities.

Contributors: Chelsey R. Carter, Yale U; David McDermott Hughes, Rutgers U; Stephanie Delise Jones, U of California, Riverside; Sameena Mulla, Emory U; Katy Overstreet, Saxo Institute, U of Copenhagen; Michelle Parsons, Northern Arizona U; Adair Rounthwaite, U of Washington; Damien M. Sojoyner, U of California, Irvine; Emily Yates-Doerr, Oregon State U.

Matthew J. Wolf-Meyer is author of several books, including American Disgust: Racism, Microbial Medicine, and the Colony Within, and he is coeditor, with Denielle Elliott, of Naked Fieldnotes: A Rough Guide to Ethnographic Writing, both from Minnesota. He is professor of science and technology studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Contents

Life Support: An Introduction to Economies of Care

Matthew J. Wolf-Meyer

Eliminate Race-Based Epidemiologies

Chelsey R. Carter

Promote Carbon-Reducing Labor

David McDermott Hughes

Repair Care as a Casualty of Domestic Warfare

Stephanie Delise Jones and Damien M. Sojoyner

Decenter Whiteness in Gender-Based Violence Intervention

Sameena Mulla

Center Care in More-than-Human Agricultural Communities

Katy Overstreet

Extend Care Beyond Institutions and Projects

Michelle Parsons

Build Viewing Publics Through Digital Arts Access

Adair Rounthwaite

Open Borders to Create New Connections to Home and Kin

Emily Yates-Doerr

Contributors

Open Access Manifold Edition