ABSTRACT
This book argues that the concept of care is a political and a moral concept. As such, it enables us to examine moral and political life through a radically different lens. The editors and contributors to the book argue that care has the potential to interrogate relationships of power and to be a tool for radical political analysis for an emerging critical social work that is concerned with human rights and social justice.
The book brings a critical ethics of care into the realm of theory and practice in social work. Informed by critical theory, feminism, intersectionality and post-colonialism, the book interrogates the concept of care in a wide range of social work settings. It examines care in the context of social neglect, interdisciplinary perspectives, the responsibilisation agenda in social work and the ongoing debate about care and justice. It situates care in the settings of mental health, homelessness, elder care, child protection, asylum seekers and humanitarian aid. It further demonstrates what can be learnt about care from the post-colonial margins, Aboriginal societies, LGBTI communities and disability politics. It demonstrates ways of transforming the politics and practices of care through the work of feminist mothers, caring practices by men, meditations on love, rethinking self-care, extending care to the natural environment and the principles informing cross-species care.
The book will be invaluable to social workers, human service practitioners and managers who are involved in the practice of delivering care, and it will assist them to challenge the punitive and hurtful strategies of neoliberal rationalisation. The critical theoretical focus of the book has significance beyond social work, including nursing, psychology, medicine, allied health and criminal justice.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|59 pages
Framing care
chapter 3|11 pages
Re-imagining social work’s engagement with care
chapter 5|11 pages
Care and justice
part II|66 pages
Situating care
chapter 7|10 pages
I’ve got your back
chapter 10|11 pages
Caring in an uncaring context
chapter 11|11 pages
Humanitarian aid and social development
part III|45 pages
Unsettling care
chapter 12|10 pages
Speaking of care from the periphery
chapter 14|13 pages
‘No sex, please …’
part IV|68 pages
Transforming care