On Care

With care in mind, this collection of translations turns to moral philosophy, economic theory, and feminist thought, calling us toward an urgent social, ecological, and affective transformation, or perhaps a return to it. Unlike dominant ethical paradigms that encourage impartiality and detachment, the ethics of care is nourished by relationality and proximity - it attends to our deep entanglements with family, loved ones, our dwelling, land, and memory, while refusing the patriarchal domestication of care. It reminds us that care is not merely an emotional practice, but a moral matter shaped by power, context, and affect.

What does it mean to live in a world where the path goes towards depletion of care and natural resources, rather than preservation, renewal, and nourishment? Who and what benefits from the care crisis, and what feelings and actions have the ability to resist? – The book will partially answer these questions, but it also leaves an uncharted path for thought, exploration, and elaborating – for the search for individual or collective energies.

Today, talking about care means talking about the present and the future, through remembering the past. It signifies reflection about environmental collapse, political crises, systems that deprive us of what defines our dignified lives. However, this book is by no means a mourning – it calls us to learn from the uncontrollable acts of denial, grief, stubbornness. The texts included in this collection do not exhaust the conversation about care, they cannot explain its complexity, on the contrary, they may even create ambiguities: care harms, care heals; care is enough, care is deficient. The book speaks precisely about the neglected layers of care and the urgency that grows out of these layers.

Mariam Tchantchaleishvili