Care ethics as relational responsibility

‘I don’t clean up after myself’: epistemic ignorance, responsibility and the politics of the outsourcing of domestic cleaning

Feminist Theory ◽

10.1177/1464700119842560 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

pp. 25-45

Author(s):

Riikka Prattes

Keyword(s):

Domestic Work ◽

Care Ethics ◽

Domestic Workers ◽

Second Step ◽

Heterosexual Couples ◽

Semipermeable Membranes ◽

Depth Study ◽

Global North ◽

Systematic Failure ◽

Relational Responsibility

In this article, I propose to look at the organisation of reproductive labour in the ‘global North’ through a lens of epistemic ignorance. Focusing on the process of outsourcing, I argue that it creates forms of irresponsibility, and with it, epistemic ignorance. The devaluation of domestic work and the degradation of domestic workers is shaped by gendered and colonial ideologies, and Western epistemologies. These epistemologies underpin a strong subject/object split and buffer the denial of existing interdependencies. I problematise those epistemologies by drawing on feminist care ethics, accounts of relational selves and relational responsibility, and alternative epistemologies. Grounding that discussion on vignettes from an in-depth study of heterosexual couples in Austrian households who outsource domestic work, I argue that the systematic failure to see what and who we are connected to in the domestic realm is shaped by gendered and racialised privilege, and driven by an epistemology of separation. My argument will unfold in two steps. First, I use the concept of the skin as an example of how the beliefs in an independent, autonomous self and a strong subject/object split disguise connectedness and relationality. This leads me to the second step, in which I explicate my notion of semipermeable membranes – a thinking together of ontological permeability and ethical responsiveness. I argue that active forms of ‘unknowing’ at work in ‘mundane,’ everyday, domestic performances have far-reaching consequences.

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From Is to Ought : A Comparative Study on the Neo-Confucian Concept of ren and Care Ethics

Journal of Humanities Therapy ◽

10.33252/jht.2020.06.11.1.171 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 171-190

Author(s):

Ning Zhao

Keyword(s):

Comparative Study ◽

Care Ethics

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Care Ethics: Moving Forward

Hypatia ◽

10.2979/hyp.1999.14.1.112 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

pp. 112-119

Author(s):

Joan C. Tronto

Keyword(s):

Care Ethics

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Harry Potter and the Moral Spectrum of Care: Using Feminist Care Ethics to Analyze Morality

10.30707/etd2015.ragan.s ◽

2015 ◽

Author(s):

Shelby Ragan

Keyword(s):

Care Ethics ◽

Harry Potter ◽

Feminist Care Ethics

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The Catholic Church in America, the Discipline of Bioethics, and the Culture of Life

The Linacre Quarterly ◽

10.1080/002436311803888221 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 78 (4) ◽

pp. 415-436

Author(s):

Mark S. Latkovic

Keyword(s):

Health Care ◽

Moral Reasoning ◽

Catholic Church ◽

Care Ethics ◽

Positive Influence ◽

Health Care Ethics ◽

Twentieth Anniversary ◽

American Society ◽

The Church ◽

The Catholic Church

In this paper, I will first briefly discuss why the Catholic Church has always had and continues to have such a great concern for bioethics or health-care ethics, while I also highlight the biblical roots of this concern. Secondly, I will describe some of the ways in which the Catholic Church in America has exercised a positive influence in the field of bioethics, or what was in the mid-twentieth century often called medical ethics. Thirdly, I will sketch how and why the Church has to a large extent lost this influence, tracing how secularization both inside and outside the Church contributed to the destruction of the so-called “Catholic ghetto” and to the assimilation of ideas from the culture that were often alien to the Gospel and sound moral reasoning. Finally, I will offer some general reflections on how the Church can regain her influence in this area—especially with the goal in mind of building a culture of life in American society—and how Catholic scholars in particular can contribute to this effort by following the lead of the late Pope John Paul II's 1995 encyclical on bioethics, Evangelium vitae, whose twentieth anniversary is fast approaching.

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