Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of the book. The book explores the various understandings of care through a range of analytical approaches, contexts and case studies. It discusses the diverse meanings of care in the feminist economic and feminist ecological political debates, paying particular attention to the complicated nexus between re/productivity, nature, womanhood and care. The book looks at the discussions that use care as a conceptual tool to imagine how to go beyond capitalism with a focus on the contributions of community economies, everyday practices of care, the politics of place and care of non-human others. It discusses the concept of naturecultures, the debates around gender and sustainability, alternatives to development and body politics. The book argues that its partiality for attention to care, community and personal and interspecies relations in economic and ecological analysis in ways that link ethics, nature and culture.