Caring With

Here we zoom in to consider further Tronto’s concept of caring with.

In setting out the moral principles upon which this component of her integrated framework rests, Tronto emphasises the alignment of caring with, with a “new democratic ideal” (Tronto 2015: 14); that is, “with democratic commitments to justice, equality and freedom for all” (Tronto 2013: 23). Indeed, her own focus here is primarily on presenting its meaning at a societal level, as a frame for “imagin[ing] the entire polity of citizens engaged in a lifetime of commitment to” an ethics of good care (Tronto 2015:14).  

Tronto’s idea of caring with thus challenges the mainstream neoliberal paradigm, which is based on an individualised conception of human life and responsibility. In contrast, caring with represents:

“a sociopolitical vision in which the equitable distribution of care and caring responsibility become public concerns, enabling citizen caring, and in turn providing a foundation for a functioning democracy. This is a society that, quite literally, makes care possible: caring with citizens through the equitable distribution of care and responsibility” (Power, 2019: 764, emphasis added).

For the purposes of this MOOC, we are interested in prompting further dialogue and reflection on how this challenge takes shape as practical forms of action and ways of being, and with what consequences, at a whole range of scales.  

Whether caring with be orientated towards a micro (individuals), meso (community or place) or macro (national or global) scale of (relational) practice, and directed primarily towards the needs of humans, more-than-humans, or human and more-than-human needs in combination, it is best able to flourish where there is a commitment to the values of solidarity, plurality, and reciprocity (Sevenhuijsen 1998). These values – which we also address further in the remaining lessons of this Unit - are enacted and performed by the caregivers with the care receivers, not simply for them. They help to define why caring with, and ethics of care more broadly, need always to be approached as a collective rather than individual endeavour.

Informative also here, in making sense of the potentially multifaceted nature and scope of caring with, is the work of Milligan and Wiles (2010) on ‘landscapes of care’. Writing from within the discipline of human geography, they assert the value of understanding care as involving “not not just interpersonal relations but also people-place relationships” (p738):

“any attempt to understand care means that we need to consider not just the care-giver or care-recipient but all those involved in the care relationship. Critically, the nature, extent and form of these relationships are affected by where they take place” (p738)

As they also proceed to explain, by giving emphasis to the situated nature of care relations through this place-based lens, this helps to raise our awareness of the diversity of care norms in circulation across different socio-cultural, public and private settings. It further helps us to map out any shifts which may have occurred over time, and how they in turn have contributed to differing meanings and perceptions of the role of place in shaping practices of caring with – something which we will return to, in the context of the academy especially, at various points through the remainder of this MOOC.

QUESTIONS:

• How does the ability to respond to needs of one another become attuned through the practicing of caring with?
• How vulnerable is this attunement to disruption?
  • What actions, abilities and resources (e.g. time, energy, skills) are required in order that such attunement can be maintained?
• In what ways does the practice of opening up and making oneself available to co-becoming and caring-with another result in a mutual process of transformation?