Socializing Care

Book excerpt: Criticism is often levied that care ethics is too narrow in scope and fails to extend to issues of social justice. Socializing Care attempts to dispel that criticism. Contributors to the volume demonstrate how the ethics of care factors into a variety of social policies and institutions, and can indeed be useful in thinking about a number of different social problems. Divided into two sections, the first looks at care as a model for an evaluative framework that rethinks social institutions, liberal society, and citizenship at a basic conceptual level. The second explores care values in the context of specific social practices (like live kidney donations) or settings (like long-term care), as a framework that should guide thinking. Ultimately, this collection demonstrates how society would benefit from a more serious engagement with care ethics.