Care Ethics, Democratic Citizenship and the State

This book reflects on theoretical developments in the political theory of care and new applications of care ethics in different contexts. The chapters provide original and fresh perspectives on the seminal notions and topics of a politically formulated ethics of care. It covers concepts such as democratic citizenship, social and political participation, moral and political deliberation, solidarity and situated attentive knowledge. It engages with current debates on marketizing and privatizing care, and deals with issues of state care provision and democratic caring institutions. It speaks to the current political and societal challenges, including the crisis of Western democracy related to the rise of populism and identity politics worldwide. The book brings together perspectives of care theorists from three different continents and ten different countries and gives voice to their unique local insights from various socio-political and cultural contexts.

1. Introducing the Contexts of a Moral and Political Theory of Care

2. Democratic Practice and ‘Caring to Deliberate’: A Gadamerian Account of Conversation and Listening

3. Democratic Inclusion Through Caring Together with Others 

4. Why the Publicly Funded Solution is Better Equipped to Provide Democratic Care ‘for All’

5. Rethinking ‘Paternalism’ for a Democratic Theory of Care

6. The Nurturing Vocabulary of Care Ethics and Other Related Feminist Approaches: Opposing Contemporary Neoliberal Politics

7. Is Caring Democracy a Solution against Neoliberalism and Neopopulism?

8. Time for Caring Democracy: Resisting the Temporal Regimes of Neoliberalism

9. Caring Democracy: How Should Concepts Travel?

10. Cosmopolitanism, Care Ethics and Health Care Worker Migration

11. Understanding the Social Care Crisis in England through Older People’s Experiences 

12. Women’s Experiences of Poverty in Japan: Protection and the State

13. Deficit of Democratic Care in the Education System in Slovakia

14. Organizing the Caring Society: Towards a Care Ethical Perspective on Institutions