Digging into care practices: the confrontation of care ethics with qualitative empirical and theoretical developments in the Low Countries, 2007–17

Abstract

The article starts with a brief sketch of the current state of care ethics in the Dutch-speaking Low Countries. It examines more closely the authors’ approach to empirical research and its underlying argument, and sketches a theoretical development in care ethics that they deem promising. An oscillating movement is needed between empirical work and theory development, committing both to each other. The article concludes with some remarks on the need in care ethics for multisided international debates, the empirical grounding of normative claims and the radicalisation of care ethics, loyal to its critical insights and dedicated to its transformational aim.

“Watchful waiting”: everyday ethical caring practices of general practitioners in cases of intimate partner violence

“…This research was conducted in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, and obtained ethical approval from the Ethical Commission of Human Sciences at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. An empirical qualitative design was chosen, following the argument that to comprehend care, one should look empirically to practices (Vosman et al, 2018). In addition, a qualitative approach offers in-depth understandings of the experiences and views of participants, which fits the scope of this research.…”

“…Following this argument, the ethics of care could help in analysing the concrete caring practices of GPs dealing with IPV cases in relation to the challenges they face and how they can provide 'good care' in a normative sense. An ethics of care perspective provides critical insight into relationality and vulnerability, while also valuing care by politicising it (Tronto, 1993;Vosman et al, 2018). According to Vosman et al (2018: 406): 'this politicisation can not only be achieved through critical theorising but also by looking empirically at care from within caring practices '.…”

Four Paradigm Cases of Dependency in Care Relations

“…Juxtaposing paradigm cases can lead to new theoretical insights. Another method might be found in diving into the messy reality of actual relations of dependency—for instance by combining philosophical inquiry and qualitative work, as in methods pursuing an “empirically grounded ethics of care” (for example, Leget, Borry, and de Vries 2009; Pols 2015; Vosman, Timmerman, and Baart 2018; Van der Weele, Bredewold, Leget, and Tonkens 2020). This is not to say that any argument about dependency must account for the fleshly stuff of qualitative inquiry.…”

The continuing formation of relational caring professionals

“…Our insights have been developed through many years of training and supervising, and in an 'oscillating' movement between empirical research, theory development and ethical reflection (Baart 2020). We position ourselves in the literature about the developing discipline of care ethics as an empirical endeavour (Klaver et al 2014;Leget et al 2017;Vosman et al 2018), within the framework of a political take on care ethics (Vosman 2020), viewing care as a moral practice, in particular within the framework of presence theory (Baart 2001). We draw heavily on discussions about the reflective practitioner (Argyris and Schön 1974;Schön 1983Schön , 1987, normative professionalization (Jacobs et al 2008;van Ewijk and Kunneman 2013), Bildung (Klafki 2007) and practical wisdom (Bontemps-Hommen 2020; Kinsella and Pitman 2012; Schwartz and Sharpe 2010).…”