After Liberalism in World Politics? Towards an International Political Theory of Care

Dados Bibliográficos

ID12902178
AutoresFred Robinson (0000-0001-8867-674X, Carleton College, autor correspondente), Fiona Robinson (0000-0002-7525-393X)
Ano2010
Volume4
Fascículo2
Páginas130-144
Data de publicação2010-06-25
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoEthics and Social Welfare (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1749-6535 • E-ISSN: 1749-6543
EditoraTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17496535.2010.484257
OpenAlexW1965579654
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas19
Referências citadas17

This paper explores the potential for an international political theory of care as an alternative to liberalism in the context of contemporary global politics. It argues that relationality and interdependence, and the responsibilities for and practices of care that arise therewith, are fundamental aspects of moral life and sites of political contestation that have been systematically denied and obfuscated under liberalism. A political theory of care brings into view the responsibilities and practices of care that sustain not just ‘bare life’ but all social life, from nuclear and extended families to local, national and transnational communities. It disrupts and challenges the individualism of liberalism, and the associated valorization of ‘freedom’, ‘autonomy’, and ‘toleration’. Instead, it emphasizes an ontology of relationality and interdependence that accepts the existence of vulnerability without reifying particular individuals, groups or states as ‘victims’ or ‘guardians’. Furthermore, by demonstrating the gendered and raced nature of caring in the contemporary world—from the household to the transnational level—an international political theory of care challenges our received assumptions about ‘dependence’ in world politics, and opens up space to interrogate politically not only gender but race and other aspects of inequality in the global political economy

Autonomy · Environmental ethics · Individualism · Law and economics · Liberalism · Political economy · Political philosophy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Law · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Social Policy and Reform Studies