Caring in, for, and with Nature: An Integrative Framework to Understand Green Care Practices

Abstract

Green Care practices have received increasing scholarly attention in the last decade. Yet most studies are concerned with the aspect of human well-being, with less attention given to other caring dimensions and their relation to sustainability. This paper aims to contribute to an integrative understanding of Green Care by proposing an analytical framework inspired by the ethics of care literature and, in particular, Tronto’s five stages of caring (about, for, with, giving, and receiving). The goal is to use a relational lens to appreciate the diverse caring practices and their potential in three Finnish cases studies—a care farm, a biodynamic farm, and a nature-tourism company. We apply the framework on data gathered during three years through an in-depth participatory action-oriented research. Findings show that: (a) Green Care practitioners share sustainability concerns that go beyond human well-being and that translate into practices with benefits for the target users, wider community, and ecosystems; (b) caring is a relational achievement attained through iterative processes of learning. Two concluding insights can be inferred: a care lens sheds light on practitioners’ moral agency and its sustainability potential; in-depth creative methods are needed for a thorough and grounded investigation of human and non-human caring relations in Green Care practices.

Towards a caring transdisciplinary research practice: navigating science, society and self

“…Therefore, we propose drawing on the notion of ethics of care (Tronto 1998;Moriggi et al 2020) to guide the development of a more caring practice of transdisciplinarity. Caring for people and nature can be a driving force to conduct transformative transdisciplinary research that is societally relevant and fosters sustainability (Lam et al 2020a).…”

“…Caring for people and nature can be a driving force to conduct transformative transdisciplinary research that is societally relevant and fosters sustainability (Lam et al 2020a). Care is fundamentally a relational notion (Moriggi et al 2020), and drawing on care as a driving value for transdisciplinary research practice can enable a more relational form of research practice within an otherwise highly segmented academic environment. Our exploration of ethics of care as a guiding concept is necessarily brief here, and we invite others to contribute with their experiences to further develop the idea of a caring practice of transdisciplinary research.…”

A Care-Based Approach to Transformative Change: Ethically-Informed Practices, Relational Response-Ability & Emotional Awareness

“…In PAR, being able to respond to the needs of communities requires designing and adapting methods in line with participants' capabilities and expectations. Integral to doing so, is the employment of creative, interactive and empathic techniques, such as participatory video-making and photo-voice (Franklin, 2018;Moriggi, Soini, & Bock, 2020). The concept of response-ability can also inform the idea of research as a performative act, dismissing detachment and neutrality, in favor of a subjective commitment to change.…”

A feminist ethos for caring knowledge production in transdisciplinary sustainability science

“…Etymologically, the word ‘care’, from the Old English ‘cearu’ translate into two meanings: an active one of attentiveness, regard, consideration and a passive meaning of worry, grief and anxiety (Moriggi et al 2020a , b ; Ahmed 2017 ). In this paper, we focus on the first meaning and define care as an attentive and power-critical commitment for the wellbeing of our world as composed of continually unfolding relationships and interdependencies between humans and all that is living and non-living (adapted from Puig de la Bellacasa 2017 ).…”