Care as a many‐splendoured topology (including prickles)

Abstract

This brief discussion piece focuses on geographies of care, providing a commentary to the special section on "Interstices of care," edited by Kelsey Hanrahan and Christine Smith. My attempt is to pull together some resonant themes from the individual contributions and to consider what the collection may offer for further research in geography and neighbouring research fields. care, responsibility, topologyThe angels keep their ancient places -Turn but a stone and start a wing! 'Tis ye, 'tis your estrangèd faces, That miss the many-splendored thing.

Caring in crisis: The experiences of local religious leaders meeting community food needs in the Philippines during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…While geographic and demographic characteristics diverged between participants, shared contextual factors “emplace[d]” ( Raghuram, 2016 , p.512) the care work within a humanitarian setting in the Philippines, in connection to an NGO and the REDI program, and as practiced by religious leaders. Thus, the study builds on appeals by care scholars to broaden our examination of care situatedness ( Bartos, 2019 ; Hanrahan and Smith, 2020 ; Kallio, 2020 ; Raghuram, 2016 ), and also strengthens its contribution as a study that brings an analysis of multi-dimensional and 'emplaced' care work to the existing humanitarian and disaster response scholarship.…”

“…Particularly, Fisher and Tronto's (1990) comprehensive view of care provided an inclusive lens through which to consider religious leaders’ efforts to address emergency food insecurity in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, more recent calls by care theorists ( Bartos, 2019 ; Hanrahan and Smith, 2020 ; Kallio, 2020 ; Raghuram, 2016 ) to explore diverse forms and locatedness of care provided a compelling foundation for engagement with ethics of care throughout the project. Accordingly, ethics of care broadly informed study design, data analysis, and research presentation.…”

“…More recently, scholars have called to further expand theorization surrounding care ethics to explore diverse forms of care as situated in various geographical and social contexts ( Bartos, 2019 ; Hanrahan and Smith, 2020 ; Kallio, 2020 ; Raghuram, 2016 ). Importantly, Raghuram (2016) has contended the need to “emplace” (p.512) care beyond the Global North and “trouble” (p.515) care by exploring unfamiliar forms of care.…”

Geographies of science and technology III: Careful entanglements, responsible futures

“…As in other geographical engagements around care (e.g. Kallio, 2020), important conversations have developed about how the engagements of critical geographers and social scientists with the practices, discourses and lifeworlds of science and technology can move beyond a stance of critique ‘and explore how to enact more responsible practices’ within science and technology (Davies et al, 2018: 615). Moves in this direction in the animal geographies literature are mirrored in debates about, for example, theoretical reflexivity and responsibility in critical physical geography (Tadaki, 2017), and about reflexive practices and responsible innovation in modes of public engagement with technoscience (Chilvers and Kearnes, 2020).…”

Towards a culture of care for ethical review: connections and frictions in institutional and individual practices of social research ethics

“…As Atkinson et al (2011) discussed in a themed issue on the topic, scales of care vary from the closest geographyone's body -to wider spaces like the natural environment. Others have concerned themselves with the 'taking place' of care -through soil and natural world connections (Haraway, 2016;De la Bellacasa, 2017), national systems of care (Bartos, 2020;Nast, 2020) and the home (Bowlby, 2011;Blunt, 2005;Milligan, 2000). The home in particular has been explored as a site of struggle as well as solace, and residence as well as resistance (Brickell, 2012).…”