The Ethics and Politics of Care: Reshaping Economic Thinking and Practice

Abstract

As the Covid pandemic and unprecedented ecological change unsettle our lives, the growing public awareness of care is reshaping economic thinking and practice as we emerge from the pandemic but find ourselves in deepening social reproduction crises and the ongoing climate crisis. Feminist economists have long identified that unpaid care work forms the basis for social reproduction or the unseen work through which capitalist economies and societies are reproduced. Even if the act of care is central to relationships and fundamental to our survival and wellbeing, it is too often taken for granted, invisible, not counted as productive or profitable, and carried out mostly by women, people of colour, immigrants, or other marginalised groups. This article reviews some current feminist economic thinking and practice that call for paying greater attention to ethics and practice of care as a way to build economies based on social justice, environmental sustainability, and collective well-being. It shows how this vision of better welfare, healthcare, care for children and the elderly, education and housing by neighbourhood networks and sustainable ecological practices is necessary for greater economic wellbeing and equity.