Crisis of Care: A Problem of Economisation, of Technologisation, or of Politics of Care?

Abstract

<p><b>Abstract</b></p>

<p>The question of care is globally pertinent and touches not only gendered care and dependencies, but also ethics of care, reflected in the ways in which care is governed and what becomes emphasised in the analyses. The stated societal ‘care crises’ consist of complex moral, political, economic and social dimensions, which need to be contextualised, with the limits of validity articulated, clarity in the definitions and frames used, and delimitations of the analyses laid out. The ‘care crisis’ does not have one, but many definitions, with analyses that are embedded and rooted in several disciplinary fields, with epistemic differences and delineations. This chapter addresses the disconnectedness of the societal, economic and political aspects of care in the academic literature. The chapter asks why the academic discussions on care, rather than addressing the entangled, complex and enmeshed care, operate through separate and disconnected fields and lenses. The chapter concludes that the offered remedies for the crisis of care are mainly technological and techno-material in nature, and based on digitalisation, technological efficiency, surveillance and AI-based algorithmic solutions, while the remedies that relate to the <i>politics of care</i> are left untouched in these technological discourses, practices and realities.</p>

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