A critical ethic of care for the homeless applied to an organisation in Cape Town

Abstract

The situation faced by homeless people within South Africa is one complicated by numerous social, economic and political problems interacting to form a unique situation. The researcher volunteered within the church-based organisation U-turn, interacting with clients at a soup kitchen in Cape Town, South Africa. Using an ethnographic approach, the researcher was faced with dilemmas emerging from Tronto's (1993) "ethic of care". Discussing this organisation's mixed results at providing transformative care within this ethic and their own theoretical framework brings to light the merits of providing any service at all to clients who have very little else.