CONFLICTING MEANINGS OF CARE: INSIGHTS FROM CULTURAL GERONTOLOGY AND CRITICAL THEORY

摘要

Multiple and conflicting meanings of ‘care’ circulate in an array of social sciences and humanities disciplines. In varied theorizing and empirical studies, care refers to a gendered form of labour that is socially devalued and poorly compensated. In the lively feminist ethics of care scholarship, care refers to a relational ethics that can radically transform individual moral codes, policy frameworks and even international relations in contrast to prevailing justice-based ethics systems. It is also frequently used without reflection in many healthcare contexts to refer to the material tasks of healthcare as well as an indicator of quality. Perhaps most controversially, in disability studies and activism care is regarded a complex form of oppression with roots and ongoing links to mass institutionalization, paternalism, and other systemic exclusions of differing embodiments. This symposium draws on cultural gerontology and critical theory to consider the contested terrain around ‘care’ in relation to aging in conceptual, policy and practices settings. In doing so, we help to both complicate and clarify ‘care’ to challenge theorists, practitioners and researchers to consider the weighty history and implications of terminology that often circulates without pause. Further, we call on the audience to consider what these conflicting and complex meanings of care might mean for their own practice and work.