Care Ethics in the Age of Precarity

2021

Maurice Hamington and Michael Flower, Editors

How care can resist the stifling force of the neoliberal paradigm

This book assembles an international group of interdisciplinary scholars to explore the question of care theory as a response to market-driven capitalism. It offers a hopeful tone in the growing valorization of care, demonstrating the need for an innovative approach to precarity within entrenched systems of oppression and a change in priorities around the basic needs of humanity.

In a world brimming with tremendous wealth and resources, too many are suffering the oppression of precarious existences—and with no adequate relief from free market–driven institutions. Care Ethics in the Age of Precarity assembles an international group of interdisciplinary scholars to explore the question of care theory as a response to market-driven capitalism, addressing the relationship of three of the most compelling social and political subjects today: care, precarity, and neoliberalism.

While care theory often centers on questions of individual actions and choices, this collection instead connects theory to the contemporary political moment and public sphere. The contributors address the link between neoliberal values—such as individualism, productive exchange, and the free market—and the pervasive state of precarity and vulnerability in which so many find themselves. From disability studies and medical ethics to natural-disaster responses and the posthuman, examples from Māori, Dutch, and Japanese politics to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement, this collection presents illuminating new ways of considering precarity in our world.

Care Ethics in the Age of Precarity offers a hopeful tone in the growing valorization of care, demonstrating the need for an innovative approach to precarity within entrenched systems of oppression and a change in priorities around the basic needs of humanity.

Contributors: Andries Baart, U Medical Center Utrecht, Tilburg U, and Catholic Theological U Utrecht, the Netherlands; Vrinda Dalmiya, U of Hawaii, Mānoa; Emilie Dionne, U Laval; Maggie FitzGerald, U of Saskatchewan; Sacha Ghandeharian, Carleton U; Eva Feder Kittay, Stony Brook U/SUNY; Carlo Leget, U of Humanistic Studies in Utrecht, the Netherlands; Sarah Clark Miller, Penn State U; Luigina Mortari, U of Verona; Yayo Okano, Doshisha U, Kyoto, Japan; Elena Pulcini, U of Florence.

Maurice Hamington is professor of philosophy at Portland State University. He has authored, coauthored, or coedited many books, including Care Ethics and Poetry, Care Ethics and Political Theory, Socializing Care, and Embodied Care.



Michael Flower is emeritus professor of interdisciplinary science studies at Portland State University. He has worked with Jonas Salk, Daniel Callahan, Clifford Grobstein, and Bruno Latour.

Contents


Acknowledgments


Introduction: A Care Movement Born of Necessity


Maurice Hamington and Michael Flower


1. Precarity, Precariousness, and Disability


Eva Feder Kittay


2. Neoliberalism, Moral Precarity, and the Crisis of Care


Sarah Clark Miller


3. Vulnerability, Precarity, and the Ambivalent Interventions of Empathic Care


Vrinda Dalmiya


4. Precariousness, Precarity, Precariat, Precarization, and Social Redundancy: A Substantiated Map for the Ethics of Care


Andries Baart


5. Global Vulnerability: Why Take Care of Future Generations?


Elena Pulcini


6. Care: The Primacy of Being


Luigina Mortari


7. Deliberate Precarity? On the Relation between Care Ethics, Voluntary Precarity, and Voluntary Simplicity


Carlo Leget


8. Precarious Political Ontologies and the Ethics of Care


Maggie FitzGerald


9. Care Ethics and the Precarious Self: A Politics of Eros in a Neoliberal Age


Sacha Ghandeharian


10. Resisting Neoliberalism: A Feminist New Materialist Ethics of Care to Respond to Precarious World(s)


Emilie Dionne


11. Precariousness, Precarity, and Gender-Care Politics in Japan


Yayo Okano


Conclusion: Care as Responsive Infrastructure


Maurice Hamington and Michael Flower


Contributors


Index