Understanding the Politics of Care

The Covid-19 outbreak has shone a light on the importance of 'care work', in maintaining the functioning of our society, and the essential role of those performing this work. 'Care' has also been at the forefront of social movements, such as the women's strikes in 2018 and 2019. 'Care' is also now increasingly part of ecological and social justice movements agendas, calling for a better and fairer world, and better care towards the environment. In many different aspects, 'care' seems to be at the heart of the concerns of the new generations. Simultaneously, however, more and more organizations such as business companies call themselves 'caring', and more marketing strategies exploit the idea of 'self-care' to sell their products. In this laboratory, we will review the origins and evolutions of the concept of 'care', looking at its ambivalent position in feminist debates, and we will analyze its political and social importance nowadays

By the end of the laboratory, from a theoretical point of view, students should be able to differentiate between various sociological and philosophical perspectives to comprehend the evolution of the concept of 'care' in today's society and its role in feminist movements.
From an analytical perspective, students should also be able to use the concept of 'care' in an empirically grounded way. They should be able to critically mobilize perspectives on 'care' to analyse different aspects of contemporary social and political action.