The Ethics of Care

Nell'ambito della filosofia politica contemporanea due approcci teorici femministi offrono un contributo significativo alla comprensione dell'ampio orizzonte di attivita che possono farsi rientrare all'interno del lavoro di cura: l'etica della cura e l'approccio della riproduzione sociale. Il primo nasce negli anni Ottanta, nel mondo anglosassone, nell'ambito della critica alle teorie della giustizia liberali; il secondo, invece, ha la sua primissima origine negli anni settanta dal dibattito internazionale interno al femminismo marxista e materialista. Se il primo si misura con l'oblio liberale della dimensione della relazione e dei legami, e con il prevalere di un modello di mascolinita che e costruito sull'esonero dalle attivita di cura, il secondo parte da una critica ad una nozione di sfruttamento limitata al mercato del lavoro produttivo remunerato e alla cecita intorno al significato che il lavoro riproduttivo non pagato delle donne ha nel proce...

Siamo oggi testimoni di una nuova vita culturale del femminismo. C’e tuttavia ben poco da rallegrarsi, e cio per diverse ragioni. Da un lato, infatti, il riemergere dei movimenti femministi e un segno tangibile delle violenze epistemiche, concrete e ordinarie che le donne ancora vivono quotidianamente; del peso che gli effetti delle politiche di austerita sortiscono soprattutto sulle loro vite; dell’anti-femminismo dichiarato e aggressivo che anima battaglie come quella contro la cosiddetta “ideologia gender”; della misoginia palese contenuta nei siti dedicati alla riscoperta e alla valorizzazione della “mascolinita” (in cui le femministe vengono eloquentemente definite feminazi); o del sessismo che, periodicamente, si scatena sui social network, soprattutto nei confronti delle esponenti della politica parlamentare e istituzionale. Dall’altro lato, nel discorso politico contemporaneo si assiste alla diffusione di idee e posizioni in cui il femminismo si mescola e contamina con ordin...

This study seeks to explain the importance of the ethics of care in making society just and equal. It attempts to respond to the exclusion of persons with disability. Using the interpretive method, this paper asks about society's ethical obligations to persons with cognitive disability. It argues that the idea of cash enhancement is not enough. Caring for persons with mental impairment requires the deep type of commitment that can only be founded in unconditional love and care. That justice is relational means that the child with autism requires the full attention of parents and the support of the state. But there is a gap since human society is reluctant to embrace the fact that there are persons who are dependent for life. The aim of this investigation is to argue that dependency on the part of individuals with cognitive disability is a morally justifiable claim that is rooted in the value of love and care as critical elements in the relational dimension of justice.

O presente artigo apresenta uma reflexão vinculada à teorização sobre o cuidado e os direitos da natureza no marco do acompanhamento de dinâmicas de enfrentamento à COVID-19 por parte de mulheres lideranças de dois grupos sociais específicos: mulheres indígenas da Serra das Matas, no Ceará, e mulheres catadoras da Associação Reciclando para a Vida, de Mossoró, Rio Grande do Norte. A metodologia, de tipo qualitativo, baseou-se em encontros que tiveram lugar entre 08/2020 e 12/2021 no marco da pesquisa participativa "Boas Práticas de Enfrentamento à COVID-19 no Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba e Ceará", onde realizamos etnografias e acompanhamos a realização de oficinas em encontros presenciais e virtuais. Neste diálogo, mediado por uma perspectiva feminista interseccional e descolonizadora, ativamos tensões entre os conceitos de corpo-território, cuidado mais do que humano e pedagogias da luta de lideranças femininas, apontando para o caráter encarnado e comunitário de pedagogias de luta.

Autoras: Ana Gretel Echazú Böschemeier, Karlla Christine Araújo Souza, Jocyele Ferreira Marinheiro e Maria Luísa Medeiros de Macêdo.

Palavras-chave: Feminismos  plurais.  Mulheres  indígenas.  Mulheres  catadoras.  Cuidado. Interseccionalidade.

Dossiê
v. 9 n. 2 (2022): Saberes e estratégias de resistências em tempos de pandemia: pedagogias da luta

O atual contexto histórico global de crise sanitária desencadeada pela pandemia do coronavírus expõe a profunda crise política, econômica, ambiental, ética, e, portanto, civilizatória em que está mergulhada a humanidade. Assim, como forma de se pensar a atual conjuntura e consequentemente, fornecer elementos para se construir um outro tipo de futuro que esteja sintonizado com pautas populares, críticas e humanitárias, o presente dossiê visa apresentar estudos, discussões e reflexões acerca dos saberes e estratégias de resistências construídas nos contextos de luta pela vida e dignidade social ligadas a experiências de educação emancipadora e, sobretudo, comprometidas com a construção de um outro mundo possível.

O dossiê proposto tem como objetivo publicar relatos de experiências, pesquisas, reflexões teóricas e práticas, acerca da educação ambiental como estratégia de resistência, levando em conta práticas educativas emergentes que se desenvolvem nos contextos de lutas pela vida, terra, moradia, ambiente, saúde, alimentação, entre outras. Diante deste trabalho, pretendemos provocar reflexões no campo da educação sobre as suas bases epistemológicas e sobre novas possibilidades pedagógicas emergentes que se desenvolvem no enfrentamento dos desafios contemporâneos e futuros, sobretudo, no âmbito das fronteiras culturais, éticas, ambientais e políticas que naturalmente envolvem os processos de produção de conhecimento.

Organizadores:

Prof. Dr. Samuel Penteado Urban (UERN)

Profa. Dra. Suzani Cassiani (UFSC)

Prof. Dr. Irlan von Linsingen (UFSC)

Prof. Dr. Bruno Andrade Pinto Monteiro (UFRJ)

Em: Revista Sergipana de Educação Ambiental | REVISEA, São Cristóvão, Sergipe, BrasilV. 9, N. 2, 2022| ISSN Eletrônico: 2359-4993

Disponível em: https://www.seer.ufs.br/index.php/revisea/issue/view/1216

In this article, I explore the implications of three moral grounds for the justification of supported voting-respect as opacity, respect as equal status, and respect as political care. For each ground, I ask whether it justifies surrogate voting for voters unable to either communicate or give effect to their electoral judgments, due to some cognitive or communicative disability. (Henceforth: incommunicability cases.) I argue that respect as opacity does not permit surrogate voting, and equal status does not justify such support-although the latter account can make sense of the value loss involved in the persistent non-participation of individuals with cognitive and communicative disabilities. Finally, I argue that an account of supported voting based on the ethics of political care can accommodate a pro tanto moral permission to provide surrogate voting as a form of support in incommunicability cases, and it can account for the inclusive approach of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to supported decision-making. However, I show that in incommunicability cases, what the political community and individual caretakers ultimately owe to adult fellow citizens as equal members of the political community is some adequate form of political care -- but not necessarily surrogate voting.

Resumo
O  presente  trabalho  objetiva  mostrar  como  o  pensar meditativo,  pro-posto por Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), é reivindicado pela filósofa argentina Mónica Giardina, sobretudo em «La pregunta por la Tierra» (2015) e em «um fenómeno paradigmático de la crisis ecológica actual: catástrofes que invitan a pensar» (2008), a partir dos quais se percebe a concepção de uma mística da Terra, como aquilo que o pensar calcu-lador acabou eliminando, ou seja, a mística da Terra é entendida como um  outro  modo  de  pensar/habitar  a  Terra,  que,  por  sua  vez,  põe  em  pauta  a  constituição  de  uma  ecofilosofia.  Com  o  pensar  meditativo  e  a mística da Terra, a questão ecológica ganha articulação de uma eco-filosofia, que, frente aos riscos provocados pelo avanço tecnocientífico, constrói, ou melhor, fundamenta suas críticas no paradigma ontológico do cuidado. Logo, a proposta de uma mística da Terra, articulada com o pensar meditativo, mostra a possibilidade de haver uma filosofia que assume como tema central de sua reflexão a Terra e toda a problemática aí implicada.
Palavras-chave:  Pensar meditativo;  Mística  da  Terra;  Ecologia;  Mónica  Giardina; Martin Heidegger.

Abstract
The present work aims to show how meditative thinking, proposed by Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), is claimed by the Argentine philosopher Mónica Giardina, especially in La pregunta por la tierra (2015) and in Un fenómeno paradigmático de la crisis ecológica actual: catástrofes que invitan a pensar (2008), from which the conception of a mysticism of the Earth is perceived, as that which calculative thinking ended up eliminating, that is, the mystique of the Earth is understood as another way of thinking/inhabiting the Earth, which, in turn, puts on the agenda the constitution of  an  eco-philosophy.  With  meditative  thinking  and  Earth  mysticism,  the ecological question is articulated in an eco-philosophy which, faced with the risks caused by techno-scientific progress, builds, or rather, bas-es its criticism on the ontological paradigm of care. Thus, the proposal of a mysticism of the Earth, articulated with meditative thinking, shows the possibility of having a philosophy which takes the Earth and all the problems implied therein as the central theme of its reflection.
Keywords:  Meditative  Thinking;  Mysticism  of  the  Earth;  Ecology;  Mónica Giardina; Martin Heidegger.

Critical sociologists have long recognized the intersections between love and revolution. For the most part, however, our understanding of love and its relevance for revolution remains vague. My article seeks to remedy this limitation. It starts by sketching the social and personal contexts of alienation, indicating that in today's capitalist world genuine love is revolutionary in itself. It then specifies what love means, what types of love exist, and what revolutionary love implies in theory and practice. The next section introduces the political cultures of loving revolution concept and applies it to the Indian independence movement led by Gandhi. The conclusion discusses how potential revolutionaries might benefit from my interpretation of love and revolution.

Why is yet another definition of architecture needed? Why should we work on a new entry on architecture in the general lexicon? Why at this point in time, should all those professionally concerned with architecture worry about a new definition of architecture?  The following essay uses these questions of definition to think through a number of issues as they concern concrete historical power relations, epistemic power and the relationship between architecture, environmental interdependence and human/nonhuman entanglements.

Homelessness is an obvious moral challenge, given the fact that it is a problem that millions of people in the developed world have to deal with on a daily basis. In the relatively scarce literature on this subject, there appear to be—roughly—three main approaches, namely, what I will refer to as the “difference approach,” the “liberal approach” and the “care approach.” In the paper I will critically review these three moral perspectives on the issue of homelessness. I will argue that the difference approach and the liberal approach in the end are unconvincing. Homelessness can hardly be interpreted in terms of an internally valued group identity nor in terms of autonomy and its preconditions. I will defend a version of the care approach instead, an approach that focuses on the concrete and particular needs of the homeless.

Introducción: En este artículo se parte de la perspectiva que afirma que el cuidado es más que una tarea y alude a modos de vinculación de cada persona consigo misma, con las demás y con los ecosistemas. De este modo, se abona el supuesto de que todas las personas tienen saberes sobre el cuidado y pueden cuidar.

Objetivo principal: Analizar las percepciones en torno al cuidado que presentan las personas con discapacidad intelectual adultas que asisten a un centro de día de la región centro de Argentina, a partir de sus propias vivencias y significaciones.

Método: El estudio se enmarca en el paradigma cualitativo, desde el enfoque de la grounded theory. En este artículo se presentan los resultados de 10 entrevistas en profundidad y 2 círculos de conversación reflexiva (focus group) desarrollados entre los meses de febrero y mayo del año 2022, con 10 personas adultas de diferentes géneros y edades que asisten a un centro de día dedicado a su inclusión social y laboral.

Resultados y conclusión: Se evidencian múltiples percepciones en torno al cuidado: como ayuda ante tareas de la vida cotidiana, prácticas ligadas al control, vínculos fundamentados en la reciprocidad. Las personas entrevistadas se reconocen agenciando diferentes prácticas de cuidado. El artículo concluye que las percepciones de las personas que formaron parte de este estudio, son discordantes respecto a la literatura predominante en torno al tema, la cual solo considera el rol de las personas con discapacidad como receptoras de cuidado. Asimismo, presentan percepciones que asimilan, así como también diferencian, las prácticas de control respecto del cuidado. Estas consideraciones convocan a abordajes complejos del tema, que permitan identificar la agencia y la recepción del cuidado en los vínculos más allá
de los roles existentes.

By iLiana Fokianaki This is the second of a two-part essay in which the philosophical dimension of care is fleshed out in relation to its politics and ethics. This is done vis-à-vis the idea of collectivity, to see how they can inform cultural practice during a period in which the COVID-19 pandemic has placed care at the forefront of conversations internationally. The first part can be read here.

This article considers why and how evidence-based practice has become distorted in practice, and what to do about it. We present qualitative data from an action research project in policing to highlight tensions between the rhetoric and reality of evidence-based practice, and the ways in which evidence-based practice’s seductive catchphrase ‘what works’ is being understood and applied. Through the lens of care ethics, we integrate ‘what matters’ with ‘what works’, and ‘what matters/works here’ with ‘what matters/works everywhere’. This approach recognizes relational expertise, practical reasoning and critical inquiry as vital for evidence-based practice in practices of social intervention. Drawing on key care ethics motifs, we suggest that care is the ethical scaffolding upon which social justice relies, and hence crucial to organs of security, peacekeeping and law enforcement. From this position, we argue that policing might renegotiate its difficult relationship with the particula...

Nonanthropocentric approaches are one of the predominant features of contemporary feminist philosophy, especially in critical posthumanities (e.g. Rosi Braidotti) and feminist new materialisms (e.g. Diana Coole). The author aims at outlining the axiological grounds of the turn to nonanthropocentrism. It is done in two steps. First, the author points to recent debates around the impossibility to separate values from facts in the mentioned contemporary trends (illustrated with reference to Bruno Latour, DonnaHaraway and Karen Barad). Second, the author presents
how the subject of knowledge changes together with the need to uncover the entanglement of values and facts (using the example of Haraway). The author presents responsibility (as response-ability), interdependence and care as an axiological foundation of nonanthropocentrism. The posthumanistic and nonanthropocentric critique of humanism is here presented as motivated by ethics above all other aspects.

The caring revolution is a not-yet toward which we must work in order to practice care as planetary responsibility around which political and economic life will be organized. The revolution against the general crisis of care therefore needs a two-pronged approach that engages with the past and with the future. This requires attention to the toxic realities that have led to the current predicament and a commitment to life-making futurity that provides time to heal past wounds. This requires decolonizing care through critical engagement with the far-reaching implications of the idea of the modern independent subject, which gave rise to human exceptionalism at the expense of the real interdependence of human and natural, social and environmental.

It is assumed that the states have the right to control their borders and decide whom they want to exclude, isolate, ban, or impose restrictions on. Although it seems that the problematic notion of “sovereignty” gives the state the right to make these kinds of decisions, there are situations where ethical duties to other human beings supersede sovereignty and where, in fact, those ethical duties limit sovereignty. This would be the case of group asylum situations. In this paper, we propose Axel Honneth’s ethics of recognition as a complement to the liberal notion of solidarity. By introducing a derivation of the ethics of recognition, namely, the “ethics of care,” we argue that our connection to others and the ethical duties we have with them impose some limits on the idea of sovereignty.

En este artículo propongo la utilización de la ética de los cuidados como marco teórico y político para repensar la ‘robótica’ y la ‘inteligencia artificial’ (IA) en el ámbito de la salud. Utilizando la perspectiva teórica de los Estudios de Ciencia y Tecnología, desarrollo una aproximación a partir de la idea de continuum entre cuidados, política, ética y tecnologías. Propongo una reflexión sobre las controversias en torno a la robótica y la IA desde un posicionamiento no ingenuo, desde una lógica de conflicto y confrontación con los imaginarios que acompañan el mercado de la innovación tecnológica. Conceptualmente esta propuesta gira en torno a dos nociones: la heterogeneidad y la creatividad, nociones que expresan la potencia radical de la ética de los cuidados como utopía que desafía la utopía neoliberal. A partir de estas consideraciones articulo una manera de comprender las relaciones entre los humanos y los robots que busca superar la tradicional relación diádica humano-máqui...

En el presente escrito reflexionamos sobre las principales coordenadas alrededor de las cuáles cada época construyó los modos hegemónicos de ser y hacerse hombre. En un primer momento, nos centramos en la figura del cazador y las diferentes interpretaciones en torno a la evolución humana. En un segundo momento, reparamos en la figura del soldado héroe a partir de la institución del discurso fúnebre en la Antigua Grecia. En un tercer momento, nos detenemos en la figura del proveedor del pan en la modernidad. A partir de esta circunscripción, nos preguntamos por el lugar de la vulnerabilidad en la construcción de la masculinidad hegemónica. Proponemos finalmente una ética feminista del cuidado que haciendo lugar a la vulnerabilidad constitutiva de lo humano, funcione como base de prácticas cotidianas de cuidado de sí, del otro y de la trama de la vida, así como fundamento de propuestas singulares y colectivas que procuren el cultivo de nuevas masculinidades.

This article offers a new account of the moral substance of shame. Through careful reflection on the motives and intentional structure of shame, I defend the claim that shame is an egocentric and morally blind emotion. I argue that shame is rooted in our desire for social affirmation and constituted by our ability to sense how we appear to others. What makes shame egocentric is that in shame we are essentially concerned about our own social worth and pained by the perception of our self as socially worthless. In itself, shame entails no morally pertinent concern about others or understanding of what is morally significant. I contrast shame with the possibility of relating to others-and to oneself-with love and care. Indeed, I propose that love is essential for moral understanding and motivation. The argument of the article unfolds through critical appraisals of the main strategies for defending the moral value of shame. First, against the claim that shame entails respect for others, I argue that shame's sensitivity to the opinions of others is motivated by egocentric self-concern. Second, against the view that shame over failures to live up to moral values is morally valuable, I argue that regardless of whether the values guiding our shame are moral or not, the perspective of shame is oblivious to their moral meaning. Third, against the claim that shame is crucial for self-understanding, I argue that the desire for affirmation that drives shame is a powerful source of self-deception.

The article focuses upon the phenomenon of motherhood within international and European legal contexts. The initial remarks concern the analysis of motherhood as an activity deeply rooted in interpersonal relations, in accordance with the feminist theory of care. Relevant human rights provisions dealing with motherhood are identified, and the scope of mothers' legal entitlements and public authorities' duties is analyzed. Selected case-law of the European courts is presented, in order to identify the obligations of public authorities related to providing support to the relationship between mother and child. The selection of cases is based upon their impact on bioethics, healthcare, and medical services. Therefore, the overall goal is to examine the hypothesis of prospective correspondence or lack of correspondence between the provisions of human rights treaties on motherhood (law in books) and courts' adjudication (law in action). In the final part of the article concluding remarks and observations are offered.

This article addresses the politics of ecological reconstruction in the Anthropocene by drawing from the thought of Hannah Arendt. The article particularly elaborates a notion of ‘material culture of care’ as a modality of mediating human interactions with non-human nature. Expanding on commentaries on the Arendtian ‘care for the world’, I read Arendt’s two essays on culture from the perspective of human/nature relationship. I suggest her commentary on the Roman notion of colere, cultivating nature, can offer us a notion of care that is embedded in the material interdependencies in the ‘web of life’. The essay also analyzes the modern concept of nature as an impediment for exercising such care, and discusses practices of tending and cultivating nature in the context of the city.This article addresses the politics of ecological reconstruction in the Anthropocene by drawing from the thought of Hannah Arendt. The article particularly elaborates a notion of ‘material culture of care’ as...

Confianza, in Spanish, refers to a relational and durative formation of trust and mutuality; it is about familiarity, reciprocity, and an ongoing attendance to one another. Codeswitching in Spanglish, one has confianza ‘with’ another rather than ‘in’ someone or something. Confianza is key to understanding how some individuals in Salinas could collectively acknowledge COVID as a lethal risk, yet take unique and sometimes contradictory approaches to its mitigation. As this essay shows, at the intersections of kinship and community infrastructure, Salinans often prioritized ongoing relation with and care for each other rather than trust in the institutions claiming to offer safety or respite from the risk of COVID. When they did intersect with those institutions, they were often compelled by their ongoing relations of confianza.

What unites the ethics of care theorists (since Gilligan’s In a Different Voice) is their enhancement of the affective dimension. However, their reference to the emotions remains generic. I propose to investigate this aspect further by asking: what emotions motivate care? I will affirm, first, the need to distinguish between the different emotions (such as love, compassion, or generosity) that motivate care in its various forms (private, social, global), in order to distinguish between the emancipatory and negative aspects of care; second, I will try to identify what the effectively ethical dimension of care is, by assuming the care towards the distant other (both in space and time), inspired by gratuitousness, as an exemplary case.

The main aim of this paper is to shed light on two somewhat underappreciated theories, which, by drawing attention to the embodied and relational nature of the self, both went beyond the disembodied and individualist paradigm long before most current leading approaches in the field. The paper first considers the routes out of the crisis of this paradigm proposed by care ethics. The first part focuses mainly on Carol Gilligan’s relational account of subjectivity, which served as an inspiration for the development of care ethics as a moral theory, and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of her account. In the next step, the paper sets out to compare the view of the self deployed by care ethics with Donald Winnicott’s account of the transitional area of play. The paper argues that both care ethics and Winnicott’s theory make it possible to understand human subjectivity as at the same time dependent and mature, ambivalent and integrated, vulnerable and responsible, relational and non...

In attending to the specific repercussions entailed by the presence and practice of Cuban artist Tania Bruguera, particularly in her exhibition/project 10,148,451 (2018–2019), this essay attempts to describe some elements of the aesthetic, discursive, and material conditions that contribute to the implementation (and contradictory deployments) of notions such as ethics, care, and social work in the curatorial programmes and institutional identity of Tate Modern. Bruguera’s position as an artist whose practice is characterized by constant negotiations of the interests of institutions, audiences, citizens, art world denizens, and other stakeholders becomes a subject of particular relevance at a stage of contemporary art history in which concepts such as autonomy and authorship are dwindling, while methodologies and morphologies of interdependency, mutual aid, and an ethics of care increasingly gain momentum.

This entry claims that class should be defined primarily by the forms of economic power and privilege accessible to a given subset of society. Such positionality is enmeshed in culturally specific markers of status, intellectual and cultural capital, and other forms of symbolic power. It also intersects with categories of race, gender, and sexuality, and requires intersectional analysis. The entry considers class consciousness and the epistemic privilege of the poor and marginalized. It outlines a basis for a normative religious ethical framework for approaching the question of class, informed by liberationist perspectives, womanist traditions of social ethics, and an ethics of care.

In the Netherlands, physician-assisted dying has been legalized since 2002. Currently, an increasing number of Dutch citizens are in favour of a more relaxed interpretation of the law. Based on an ethos of self-determination and autonomy, there is a strong political lobby for the legal right to assisted dying when life is considered to be completed and no longer worth living. Building on previous empirical research, this article provides a critical ethical reflection upon this social issue. In the first part, we discuss the following question: what is the lived experience of older people who consider their lives to be completed and no longer worth living? We describe the reported loss of a sense of autonomy, dignity and independence in the lives of these older people. In the second part, from an ethics of care stance, we analyse the emerging social and political challenges behind the wish to die. Empirically grounded, the authors argue that the debate on ‘completed life in old age’ ...

Ethics of Care is a normative ethical theory which is fundamentally centered around the idea of relational interdependency and intersubjectivity. Caring relations (caring for, caring towards, caring about and being cared for) require the presence of significant others and a sense of mutual connectedness between human beings. As existential phenomenology involves questions related to human existence, inter-human relationships, human actions, human experiences, etcetera, in this light, the following paper exhibits a conversation between care ethics and the notion of intersubjectivity with special emphasis on the role of human emotionality. It will be argued that by developing an account of care/ caring practice as a moral enactment, the exponents of Care Ethics conceptualize persons as "relational", "interdependent", and "emotional" beings and this further entails the existential phenomenological undertones that subsist. The fundamental question that shall be addressed in the following paper is-'how does an ethic of care ascribe a central place to certain existential phenomenological themes?' Therefore, it will be contented that the Ethics of Care theory has the potentiality to provide a well-elaborated framework for constructing a phenomenological ethics as it ascribes a vital position to the inter-personal aspect of moral life.