ABSTRACT
Social activism involves caring about how society is structured, how it impacts upon people, and working to ensure that new generations do not suffer the same social injuries experienced by previous generations. We argue that social activism is a form of caring, and that caring about making society better is basic to social reform. As Tronto says, ‘until we care about something, the care process cannot begin’ (1995, p. 145) and the context of that caring, or lack of, is as Uma Narayan reminds us, deeply political and often part of an internalised dominant ideology:
[w]hile contemporary care discourse correctly insists on acknowledging human needs and relationships, it needs to worry about who defines these often contested terms. I conclude that improvements along dimensions of care and justice often provide ‘enabling’ conditions for each other.
