Some problems and possibilities of caring

摘要

Writing on care highlights that caring is full of both problems and possibilities. Caring for others can be a source of pleasure and fulfillment, but it can also be undervalued and denied, a source of degradation and exploitation. Care not only exists within intimate relationships but is also located within global-scale hierarchies of gender, class and race/ethnicity. Care can be problematic for those who need it, who give it and who arrange care for others, but it can also be the most precious thing in the world to them. As Fiona Williams writes, 'care is not only personal; it is an issue of public and political concern whose social dynamics operate at local, national and transnational levels' (2001, p. 487). Care is political both in terms of its current organization, which can support and enhance inequalities, and in terms of the possibilities it offers to counter dominant discourses of individualism, independence and competition. An ethic of care offers a way to foreground the connections, rather than the differences between people; to question the ways that different groups are valued. A focus on care reveals mechanisms which enable unequal access to resources and the vicious circles that perpetuate such inequalities.