The Care for Life in Common in Times of Pandemic and Post-Pandemic

Abstract

In this essay, I reflect on the way that the COVID-19 pandemic deepens the care crisis and the radical, democratic transformation this turning point demands. Beginning with an assessment of the status of the free-riding on care (Nancy Fraser) and the gender division of labor, I continue with an analysis of the hegemonic justifications that, as Wendy Brown has shown, underpin such unbalance. I conclude with some remarks on the imminent challenge to advance towards a model of state, society and citizenship capable of securing a sustained and co-responsible social compromise with the care of the community.