Giacomo D’Alisa
Monday 2nd July, 17.00-19.00, Cerbère
Care is the daily action performed by human beings for their welfare and for the welfare of their community. Here, community refers to the ensemble of people within proximity and with which every human being lives, such as the family, friendships or the neighborhood. In these spaces, as well in the society as a whole, an enormous quantity of work is devoted to sustenance, reproduction and the contentment of human relations.
It is easy to imagine why re-centering a society around care would pave the way to degrowth. It responds first to the idea of equity among genders by sharing care work within the sphere of the community as well as within society as a whole. Secondly, it re instates the importance caring has on the well-being of the self, the family, the neighborhood and the society as whole. It would persuade people to work less and devote less time to the economic sphere. As a consequence the unequal burden of care work on immigrants (normally women) could also diminish. Third, because fewer hours of work would be available for the market, this would promote work sharing, allowing most people to find paid work. Last but not least, working to lessen the vulnerability of others allows everybody to experience their own vulnerability and reflect on its characteristics. This is a first important step toward abandoning narcissistic affirmations of the self as a guard against weakness, or in other words, abandoning the anthropological essence of growth society.
Recommended readings
D’Alisa G., Deriu M. and Demaria F, 2014. Care In D’Alisa, G. Demaria, F. and G. Kallis (eds), Degrowth. A vocabulary for a new era, Routledge: Earthscan.
Federici S. and Cox N. 1975. Counter planning from the kitchen. In Federici S.(2012) Revolution at Point Zero. Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle. PM Press
D’Alisa G, Cattaneo C (2013) Household work and energy consumption: a degrowth perspective. J Clean Prod 38:71–79