Care As Belonging, Difference, and Inequality

Thelen, Tatjana, "Care As Belonging, Difference, and Inequality" in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology, 26 May. 2021.
https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190854584.013.353

Presentation

Care evolves through complex arrangements of different actors, institutions, and technical devices and at the same time transforms them. As human needs are not a given, the process of care involves negotiations about who deserves to receive it and on what grounds, as well as who should provide it. Because care is so deeply implicated in articulating and mediating different moralities, it becomes central to constructions and classifications of difference. In this way, care extends far beyond intimate relations and is engrained in processes that establish belonging as well as various forms of inequality. Researching care in intimate settings as well as in public sectors enables bridging various communities of care and grasping how the distribution of care not only mirrors inequalities but contributes to their (re)production or even intensification.

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