ABSTRACT
Care relationships are central to our everyday lives. Emotional and physical forms of concern, anxiety and labour are evident in care relationships. Rather than being dependent or independent, people are, at different points of their lives, both responsible for and reliant on the caring of others. Moreover, it can be argued that this interdependency is a necessary part of what is described by philosophers as ‘human flourishing’ or, that is, ‘true happiness’ (Paul and Miller 1999). But, there is a paradox: the everyday informal caring that is essential to social life is often taken-for-granted and undervalued.
