Critical Approaches to Care

‘Critical Approaches to Care is a rich and engaging work, both theoretically and empirically. Its richness is enhanced through its cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural focus. Through a series of case studies, it explores the moral dilemmas, power relations, ethical considerations, and even unwelcome demands of care from a range of perspectives and across different political contexts. It is a feminist-inspired work that is both inclusionary and respectful of diversity. It examines the many equality and gender justice dilemmas posed by care work, be it through caring for intellectually disabled children, fostering, transnational caring, fathering or mothering. At a theoretical level, it addresses the tensions between an ethics of care and an ethic of justice. The book challenges us to consider how an ethic of care can reinvent understanding of what is socially just in a deeply uncaring and unequal world. It should be read not only by academics and students but by all of those with a public policy remit.’– Kathleen Lynch, Professor of Equality Studies in the School of Social Justice, UCD, Ireland.

‘Care is both deeply unfashionable in contemporary social policy, and an enduring focus for understanding everyday lives and social practices. This collection is a major contribution to the re-emergence of applied research and scholarship recognizing the centrality of care in diverse personal and professional relationships, and as a political value.’– Marian Barnes, Professor of Social Policy, University of Brighton.