The Subject of Care

The essays of this volume consider how acknowledgement of the fact of dependency changes our conceptions of law, political theory, and morality, as well as our very conceptions of self.

All people spend a considerable portion of their lives either as dependents or the caretakers of dependents. The fact of human dependency—a function of youth, severe illness, disability, or frail old age—marks our lives, not only as those who are cared for, but as those who engage in the work of caring. In spite of the time, energy and resources-material and emotional, social and individual-that dependency care requires, these concerns rarely enter into philosophical, legal, and political discussions. In The Subject of Care, feminist scholars consider how acknowledgement of the fact of dependency changes our conceptions of law, political theory, and morality, as well as our very conceptions of self. Contributors develop feminist understandings of dependency, reassessing the place dependency occupies in our lives and in a just social order.

Chapter 1
Chapter 1. CONTESTING THE INDEPENDENT MAN
Chapter 2 A Genealogy of Dependency: Tracing a Keyword of the U.S. Welfare State
Chapter 3 Autonomy, Welfare Reform, and Meaningful Work
Chapter 4 Dependency and Choice: The Two Faces of Eve
Chapter 5
Chapter 2. LEGAL AND ECONOMIC RELATIONS IN THE FACE OF DEPENDENCY
Chapter 6 The Right to Care
Chapter 7 Subsidized Lives and the Ideology of Efficiency
Chapter 8 Dependency Work, Women, and the Global Economy
Chapter 9
Chapter 3. JUST SOCIAL ARRANGEMENTS AND FAMILIAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR DEPENDENCY
Chapter 10 Justice and the Labor of Care
Chapter 11 The Future of Feminist Liberalism
Chapter 12 Masking Dependency: The Political Role of Family Rhetoric
Chapter 13
Chapter 4. DEPENDENCY CARE IN CASES OF SPECIFIC VULNERABILITY
Chapter 14 The Decasualization of Eldercare
Chapter 15 When Caring is Just and Justice is Caring: Justice and Mental Retardation
Chapter 16 Poverty, Race, and the Distortion of Dependency: The Case of Kinship Care
Chapter 17 Doctor's Orders: Parents and Intersexed Children
Chapter 18 SECTION 5. DEPENDENCY, SUBJECTIVITY, AND IDENTITY
Chapter 19 Subjectivity as Responsivity: The Ethical Implications of Dependency
Chapter 20 Race and the Labor of Identity
Chapter 21 Dependence on Place, Dependence in Place