Careful Thinking

What would it mean for organisations to take account of shared embodied vulnerability? In what ways do experiences of bodily fragility remind us of our need for care? And how can working collaboratively address the absence of care in higher education?

These are some of the questions we explore in this episode, with Emmanouela Mandalaki. Emmanouela is Professor of Organisations at NEOMA Business School in Paris, France. In her research, Emmanouela engages with critical feminist theories, methodologies, writing patterns and epistemologies to explore alternative ways of exploring questions of embodiment, ethics, gender diversity, inclusion, social inequalities and affect in organisations. In this process, care ethics foregrounds much of her work. Emmanouela is a prolific writer whose work has appeared in many leading journals and edited collections. During her pre-academic and academic career, Emmanouela has worked in both for profit and not for profit international organisations in many countries, in the process acquiring a diverse range of social experiences that have fed into her academic research.

We discuss the following topics in this episode:

How Emmanouela's early experiences led to the work she is doing now (02:50)

The aim and focus of Emmanouela's academic research (08:15)

The theorists who have influenced Emmanouela's work (09:45)

Emmanouela's introduction to feminist writing on organisations and care (11:50)

Researching grassroots solidarity organising in the wake of the refugee crisis in Greece (14:10)

Reflecting on a personal experience of bodily fragility and vulnerability (23:38)

Critiquing an absence of care in higher education (28:12)

On collaborative working and writing (32:12)

Reading and writing together as a relational healing process (33:30)

Poetry as a form of academic writing and a practice of care (38:47)

Emmanouela's current work and plans for further research and writing (44:18)

Some of the writers, thinkers and researchers mentioned in the episode

Rosalyn Diprose

Judith Butler

Bracha Ettinger

Maurice Hamington (see Episode 6)

Alison Pullen

Carl Rhodes

Marianna Fotaki

Nancy Harding

Erinn Gilson

Alessia Contu

Emma Bell

Sara Ahmed

Hélène Cixous

Publications by Emmanouela discussed in the episode

'A Feminist Ethics of Care for the Embodied Organizing of Solidarity: Lessons from the Refugee Crisis in Greece' (2025)

'Breaking the plaster: making do with the fragility of the body' (2023)

'Co-constructing new ways of working: relationality and care in post-pandemic academia' (2022)

'The word/world is out: You are not alone: Toward a healing organizational autoethnography in/through feminist reading and writing' (2024)

Poetry and Organizing: Perspectives on the Use and Value of Poetry in Organization Studies (2025)

'Poetry as reflexive landscapes of inclusive potential' (2025)

'Organizational poetry as an embodied feminist practice' (2025)

'Breaking words and silences' (2025)

Other publications referred to in the episode

Torkild Thanem and David Knights, Embodied Research Methods (2019)

Maurice Hamington and Ce Rosenow, Care Ethics and Poetry (2019)

Other links

4.1 Miles (documentary)

Hydrofeminism

You can download a transcript of this episode by following this link to the Careful Thinking Substack newsletter.

How can we ensure that the drive for gender equality acknowledges relationships of dependency and care? What kinds of social policies are needed to ensure that caregivers are properly supported and cared for? What can the experiences of people with disabilities teach us about what constitutes a 'good' life? And is it possible to achieve a balance between autonomy, dependency, and care?

These are some of the questions we explore in this episode with Eva Feder Kittay, one of the pioneering voices in feminist care ethics and in the emergent field of the philosophy of disability. Eva is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Philosophy at Stony Brook University in New York State, where she taught for many years. She received her bachelor's degree from Sarah Lawrence College in 1967 and went on to receive her doctoral degree from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York in 1978.

Eva has published numerous articles on the philosophy of language, feminist philosophy, and disability studies, and her work has garnered several honours and prizes. In 1999, Eva published Love's Labor: Essays on Women and Equality, a groundbreaking work in feminist philosophy, which has become one of the foundational texts of care ethics. Eva's work has been shaped in part by her experience as the mother of Sesha, a woman with significant disabilities, and in 2019 she published her book Learning From My Daughter: The Value and Care of Disabled Minds, which was the winner of the 2020 Prose Award for Excellence in Philosophy and which has recently been issued in paperback.

We discuss the following topics in this episode:

Eva's background as the child of Holocaust survivors, growing up in America in the 1950s and 1960s, and the roots of her vocation as a philosopher (02:37)

Eva's introduction to feminism and political activism (05:30)

The story behind Love's Labor (07:55)

The 'dependency critique' of equality (18:10)

The caregiver as 'dependency worker' (20:28)

De-gendering care (22:52)

'Some mother's child': caring for caregivers (27:18)

'Connection-based equality', 'nested dependencies', and doulia (30:09)

The limited role of the state in supporting care and the value of 'caring communities' (33:33)

How Eva's relationship with her daughter Sesha has shaped her thinking - and the origins of Learning from My Daughter (37:28)

Combining the personal and the philosophical in the writing process (39:47)

Challenging conventional notions of what constitutes a 'good' life (42:42)

Reproductive choice in the context of disability (46:03)

Independence, dependency, and care ethics (49:30)

The reception and completion of care (52:18)

Bodily integrity and the body as a window on the soul (56:13)

Eva's plan for a follow-up book on personhood and disability (59:00)

Some of the publications discussed in the episode

Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex

Sara Ruddick, Maternal Thinking: Towards a Politics of Peace

Eva Feder Kittay and Diana T. Myers, Women and Moral Theory

Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, Father Time: A Natural History of Men and Babies

Other writers and thinkers mentioned in the episode

Carol Gilligan

John Rawls

Martha Nussbaum

Susan J. Brison

You can download a transcript of this episode by following this link to the Careful Thinking Substack newsletter.

How can we make ethical decisions in a world that includes multiple and diverse forms of life, and what can care ethics contribute to developing a pluriversal ethics? What did the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrate about the nature of human vulnerability? And can violence ever be justified within an ethic of care?

These are some of the questions we explore in this episode, with Maggie FitzGerald. Maggie is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Studies at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics with a specialisation in political economy from St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and a Master of Arts in Political Economy from Carleton University in Ottawa, where she also completed her doctorate in the Department of Political Science.

Maggie's research focuses on the ethics of care, global ethics and international political theory, decolonial ethics, normative and critical international relations theory, and feminist political economy. Her work has appeared in journals such as Ethics and Social Welfare, the Journal of International Political Theory, and the International Journal of Care and Caring. Maggie is the author of the book Care and the Pluriverse: Rethinking Global Ethics, which was published by Bristol University Press in 2022. She is also the co-editor with Sophie Bourgault and Fiona Robinson of the collection Decentering Epistemologies and Challenging Privilege: Critical Care Ethics Perspectives, which was published by Rutgers University Press in 2024.

We discuss the following topics in this episode:

Maggie's professional and academic journey (02:41)

Feminist theorists who have influenced Maggie's thinking (05:38)

The 'pluriverse' as concept (07:29)

Introducing Care and the Pluriverse (08:30)

Using case studies from indigenous contexts (09:45)

Decentering global ethics (12:20)

A critique of modernity (16:12)

Towards a critical, political ethics of care (17:53)

COVID-19, vulnerability and the ethics of care (21:41)

Combining Lacan, Žižek and care ethics(24:20)

Decentering the self, decentering care (26:50)

Violence, trauma, care and repair (33:20)

Love and care (41:43)

Maggie's plans for a new book on care and repair (47:20)

Writers and thinkers mentioned in the episode

Joan Tronto

Fiona Robinson

Sophie Bourgault

Tiina Vaittenen

Riikka Prattes

Vrinda Dalmiya

Maurice Hamington

Kimberly Hutchings

Kate Schick

Margaret Urban Walker

Marisol de la Cadena

Sara Ruddick

Carol Gilligan

Jacques Lacan

Slavoj Žižek

Parvati Raghuram

Sacha Ghandeharian

Naomi Snider

Michael Flowers

Catia Confortini

Abigail Ruane

Frantz Fanon

Nancy Fraser

Elena Pulcini

bell hooks

Journal articles by Maggie discussed in the episode

'COVID-19, the trauma of the "real" and the political import of vulnerability'

'Violence and Care: Fanon and the Ethics of Care on Harm, Trauma, and Repair'

Other publications mentioned in the episode

Margaret Urban Walker, Moral Understandings: A Feminist Study in Ethics

Martin Robb, 'Knowing, loving, caring: some questions, connections and reflections' (Substack post)

Link

Care Ethics Research Consortium

You can download a transcript of this episode by following this link to the Careful Thinking Substack newsletter.

What insights can care ethics contribute that will help in improving the education system? How can education prepare students to be caring citizens and support the development of a 'caring democracy'? And what role should sex and relationships education play in that process?

These are some of the questions we explore in this episode, with Adriana Jesenková. Adriana studied history and philosophy at Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, and she is now an Associate Professor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts at Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, in eastern Slovakia, where her research has explored issues of care, power, and justice in the education system and in medical practice, from the perspective of feminist care ethics.

In 2016 Adriana published a monograph in Slovak on The Ethics of Care (Etika Starostlivosti) and since then has published numerous journal articles, in both Slovak and English, applying a care ethical perspective to subjects as diverse as the educational system in Slovakia, sex education, and the challenges posed by a fragmented and polarised society.

I was first introduced to Adriana’s work when we both contributed to the edited collection on Care Ethics, Religion, and Spiritual Traditions, which was published by Peeters in 2022. I was also interested to see that Adriana had contributed a chapter to the 2020 volume on Care Ethics, Democratic Citizenship and the State, which was co-edited by Petr Urban, who was my guest in Episode 4 of the podcast.

We discuss the following topics in this episode:

Adriana's personal and professional journey to studying and teaching philosophy (02:36)

Adriana's introduction to feminist care ethics and its importance for her work (09:05)

The influence of Joan Tronto on Adriana's thinking (13:55)

Applying care ethics to education (16:35)

The recent history of Slovakia, with particular reference to education (16:45)

The deficit of democratic care in the Slovak education system (25:56)

Education for care (30:33)

Adriana's research and writing on sex and relationships education (33:46)

Sex education, the family, and the state (41:39)

Caring for intergenerational relations in a time of fragmentation: the role of philosophy and literature (48:03)

Adriana's current work empowering civil society in eastern Slovakia and her plans for writing a new book on care ethics for a Slovak audience (59:55)

Links to some of Adriana's articles in English

'Research and educational potential of feminist care ethics in sex education' (2018)

'Deficit of democratic care in the educational system in Slovakia' (2020)

'Gender equality as a matter of care for the "caring university"' (2021)

'How to care better for intergenerational relations in the time of fragmentation' (2025)

Other publications referred to in the episode

Joan Tronto, Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument for an Ethic of Care

Joan Tronto, Caring Democracy: Markets, Equality, and Justice

Etela Farkašová, Záchrana sveta podľa G. (Saving the world according to G.)

Writers and thinkers mentioned in the episode

Epicurus

Etela Farkašová

Zuzana Kiczková

Mariana Szapuová

Richard Rorty

Joan Tronto

Nell Noddings

Virginia Held

Margaret Urban Walker

Maurice Hamington

You can download a transcript of this episode by following this link to the Careful Thinking Substack.

What insights can phenomenological philosophy offer into the experience of fatherhood? How does a father experience the mystery of his child's soul, and how should he respond to his child's vulnerability and suffering? And how useful is the language of sacrifice in describing the burden of paternal responsibility?

These are some of the questions we explore in this episode, with Zechariah Mickel. Zechariah is an independent scholar working at the intersection of continental philosophy and theology. He holds an MA in philosophy from the Global Center for Advanced Studies and has worked in schools as a therapeutic skills trainer and as a marketing manager and associate editor at Wipf and Stock Publishers, where he continues to host The Theology Mill Podcast. Based in Oregon in the United States, Zechariah is a husband and a father to two young children, and he is also employed as an apprentice plumber.

Zechariah has published articles in Commonweal magazine and in the Global Center for Advanced Studies Review. He’s the author of the book The Unthinkable Sacrifice: An Essay on Fatherhood, published by Cascade in 2025, which provides an account of the experience of early fatherhood using the tools of phenomenological philosophy. He is also the co-editor of the forthcoming book The Eucharist and Continental Philosophy, to be published by Fordham University Press.

We discuss the following topics in this episode:

Zechariah's background and early influences (02:30)

Zechariah's journey from evangelicalism to Catholicism (05:16)

The experience of becoming and being a father (08:05)

Working as a plumber alongside writing and publishing (09:58)

Zechariah's work for Wipf and Stock and as host of The Theology Mill Podcast (13:52)

Highlights of Zechariah's experience as a podcast host (16:33)

The 'theological turn' in French phenomenology and the influence of Steven DeLay on Zechariah's writing (18:00)

The thinking behind The Unthinkable Sacrifice (20:10)

Is the book philosophy or theology? (24:01)

The philosophers who have influenced Zechariah's thinking (28:28)

The father's experience of his child's soul and the insights of Levinas and Marion (33:50)

The vulnerability of the child and Romano's notion of 'the event' (37:40)

Fatherhood in the context of late modernity (41:40)

The burden of paternal responsibility (47:22)

Fatherhood and sacrifice (52:38)

Responding to criticisms of the book (56:35)

Zechariah's forthcoming edited volume on the Eucharist and his plans for further research and writing (01:05:05)

Some of the writers and thinkers mentioned in the episode

Thomas Merton

Steven DeLay

Emmanuel Falque

Stanley Hauerwas

William T. Cavanaugh

Sergei Bulgakov

Emmanuel Levinas

Jean-Luc Marion

Claude Romano

Jean-Yves Lacoste

Jean-Louis Chrétien

Gabriel Marcel

Byung-Chul Han

Michel Henry

Pope Francis

Some of the publications discussed in the episode

Steven DeLay's Phenomenology in France: A Philosophical and Theological Introduction

Terence Sweeney's review of The Unthinkable Sacrifice

Martin's Substack review of Zechariah's book

Films mentioned in the episode

The Sacrifice (dir. Andrei Tarkovsky)

Get Out (dir. Jordan Peele)

Other links

Foursquare Church

You can download a transcript of this episode by following this link to the Careful Thinking Substack.

What can care ethics contribute to a better understanding of death, dying, and end-of-life care? What would a relational approach to assisted dying look like? And how should care be incorporated into public policy by local and national governments?

These are some of the questions we explore in this episode, in conversation with Iris Parra Jounou. Iris is a researcher in care ethics and political philosophy, specialising in end-of-life care. She is an assistant professor in philosophy at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, in Catalonia, Spain, where she was awarded a PhD in 2025 for her thesis entitled ‘Dying in the Relaissance: End-of-Life Practices in a Caring Democracy’. Iris previously studied for bachelor’s degrees in both nursing and humanities, and for a Masters degree in contemporary thought and classical tradition. She is also a published poet and a musician.

Iris has published a number of journal articles and book chapters on end-of-life care and assisted dying, and she also has the distinction of having translated key works by the leading American care ethicist Joan Tronto into Catalan. She a contributed a chapter on ‘a care ethics and aesthetics approach to stillbirth and late termination of pregnancy for foetal anomalies’ in the recently-published edited collection Care Aesthetics and the Arts. Iris has edited a new volume on Care Ethics and Public Health, which has been published, in the Peeters Ethics of Care series, since we recorded the episode.

We discuss the following topics in this episode:

Iris' personal and professional journey to studying the philosophy of care (02:35)

Witnessing death and developing an interest in end-of-life care (06:24)

Iris' introduction to feminist care ethics (10:55)

How Iris came to interview Joan Tronto and translate her books into Catalan (16:22)

A brief cultural history of death and dying (19:57)

Towards 'an expressive-collaborative model of mortality' using care ethics (24:42)

'Dying in the relaissance' (27:46)

A relational approach to assisted dying (30:30)

The ethical conflicts of implementing medical assistance in dying (34:34)

Towards a patient-centred definition of unbearable suffering (39:05)

Iris' forthcoming co-edited book on care ethics and public health (44:10)

Towards a public ethics of care (47:30)

Reflecting on stillbirth, care ethics and care aesthetics through the medium of a literary memoir (50:35)

Iris' involvement in poetry and music (57:40)

Iris' plans for further research and writing on care (01:01:14)

Some of the writers and thinkers mentioned in the episode

Nell Noddings

Virginia Held

Carol Gilligan

Helen Kohlen

Frans Vosman

Olena Hankivsky

Judith Butler

Margaret Urban Walker

Erica Borgstrom (see Episode 9)

Ruth Levitas

Miguel Abensour

Sean Riley

David Rodríguez-Arias

Txetxu Ausín

Claudia Gamondi

Anna Starobinets

Links to Iris' some of academic writings in English

'End-of-Life Narratives of Patients who Request Medical Assistance in Dying: A Qualitative Study Protocol'

'Causes for Conscientious Objection in Medical Aid in Dying: A Scoping Review'

'Care ethics in theory and practice: Joan C. Tronto in conversation with Iris Parra Jounou'

'For, against, and beyond: healthcare professionals’ positions on Medical Assistance in Dying in Spain'

'“Suffering Is a Hostage of Healthcare Professionals’ Authority”: Shifting to a Patient-Centered Definition'

'Look at Him: A care ethics and aesthetics approach to stillbirth and late termination of pregnancy for foetal abnormalities'

Iris' translations of works by Joan Tronto

Qui se'n cuida?

Democràcia i cura

Poetry by Iris

Oriana

Al filo (audiopoem)

Iris' research projects

INEDyTO

POyETICAS

You can download a transcript of the episode by following this link to the Careful Thinking Substack.

What can the ideas of an eighteenth-century feminist thinker contribute to contemporary debates around gender and care? How should law and social policy support caregivers and create a better balance between care, work and family life? Is Catholic feminism a contradiction in terms - and if not, what's distinctive about the perspective that it offers on care?

These are some of the questions we discuss in this episode, with Erika Bachiochi. Erika is an American legal scholar who works at the intersection of constitutional law, political theory, women’s history, and Catholic social teaching. She is a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center - and Professor of Practice and Director of the Mercy Otis Warren Initiative at the School of Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University, where she also serves as Editor-in-Chief of the online journal, Fairer Disputations. A 2018 visiting scholar at Harvard Law School, Erika is a Senior Fellow at the Abigail Adams Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she founded the Wollstonecraft Project.

Erika received a B.A. from Middlebury College in 1996, an M.A. in theology as a Bradley Fellow from the Institute for the Study of Politics and Religion at Boston College in 1999, and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law in 2002. The mother of seven children, Erika was a co-founder of St. Benedict’s, a Catholic classical school in Massachusetts where she served as President of the Board from 2013-2015. She has published numerous articles in legal and political journals and in publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic.

Erika's book, The Rights of Women: Reclaiming a Lost Vision, which offers a revisionist history of the early women’s rights movement, including a radical reassessment of the work of Mary Wollstonecraft, was published in 2021.

We discuss the following topics in this episode:

Erika's journey to becoming a legal scholar (03:02)

Erika's philosophical, political and spiritual journey (08:33)

The rationale for Erika's book The Rights of Women and its focus on Mary Wollstonecraft (17:28)

The balance between rights and duties and the emphasis on virtues in Wollstonecraft's thinking (25:56)

The lost legacy of first-wave feminism (37:30)

Mary Ann Glendon's work on care, families, and social policy (43:35)

Erika's critique of feminist care ethics, and her understanding of the distinctive role of fathers in care (49:38)

The role of the state in supporting caregiving within families (59:34)

A distinctive Catholic feminist position on care (01:03:37)

Erika's plans for a sequel to The Rights of Women (01:07:33)

Some of the writers, thinkers and activists mentioned in the episode:

Aristotle

Cicero

John Locke

Mary Wollstonecraft

William Godwin

Joseph Priestley

Richard Price

Abigail Adams

Lucrecia Mott

Jane Addams

Susan B. Anthony

Sarah Moore Grimké

Betty Friedan

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Mary Ann Glendon

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR)

Eva Feder Kittay

Dorothy Day

Rachel Coleman

Kate Phelan

Abigail Favale

Leah Libresco Sargeant

Holly Lawford-Smith

Bernie Sanders

Articles by Erika Bachiochi cited in the episode

'Embodied equality: debunking equal protection arguments for abortion rights' (2011)

'Embodied caregiving' (2016)

'Dobbs, Equality and the Contested Meanings of Women's Rights' (2023)

Other publications mentioned in the episode

'Declaration of Sentiments' (1848)

Mulieris dignitatem (1988)

Mary Ann Glendon, Rights Talk: The Impoverishment of Political Discourse (1991)

Eva Feder Kittay, Love's Labor: Essays on Women, Equality, and Dependency (1999)

'Catholic and Radical Feminism: a dialogue' (Fairer Disputations) (2024)

Leah Libresco Sargeant, The Dignity of Dependence: A Feminist Manifesto (2025)

Useful links

Catholic Social Teaching

Catholic Worker Movement

New Deal

Communitarianism

New Democrats

World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995) - and see Mary Ann Glendon's account

You can download a transcript of the episode by following this link to the Careful Thinking Substack.

What can a protest movement organised by Muslim grandmothers in India teach us about the role of care in political action? In what sense should we understand care as performance and everyday caring activities as artful practices? And how might interpersonal care nurture a wider caring imagination and foster a politics of care?

These are some of the questions we discuss in this episode, with Alisha Ibkar. Originally from Kaliachak in West Bengal, India, Alisha has a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Aligarh Muslim University in Uttar Pradesh, and a Master of Arts degree, also in English Literature, from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. She was a Commonwealth Scholar at the University of Warwick, where she completed a Master’s degree in applied theatre, with her dissertation focusing on the study of ethics and the aesthetics of care in the context of political activism. Alisha is currently a School of Arts, Languages and Cultures doctoral fellow in Theatre and Performance at the Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama in the University of Manchester. Since 2016 she has also held the post of Assistant Professor of English Literature and Language at Aligarh Muslim University. In Manchester, Alisha is associated with The Care Lab, which is partnered with the AHRC-funded Care Aesthetics Research Exploration (CARE) Project, led by Professor James Thompson, who was my guest in Episode 11 of the podcast.

Alisha’s academic research places the burgeoning critical theorisations around the ethics and aesthetics of care in dialogue with socio-political protest movements, a context within which the relevance of caretaking is yet to be studied. Her research engages with women-led social movements in India to examine the extent to which care played a principal role, with her understanding of care emerging from Muslim women’s cultural and domestic practices of care. Through her work, Alisha seeks a decolonial reorientation, not only within care theory and scholarship, but also within political performance.

Alisha has published articles about her research in The Sociological Review and in Theatre Journal, and she has contributed a chapter entitled ‘On the art of Khidmat; political afterlives of Muslim women's everyday practices of care’ to a forthcoming collection on Care Aesthetics and the Arts, edited by Kate Maguire-Rosier, Réka Polonyi andJames Thompson.,

We discuss the following topics in this episode:

Alisha's early life in West Bengal and how it shaped her thinking about care and community (03:26)

The importance of education in Alisha's upbringing and her choice of English Literature as a focus for her studies (07:43)

The roots of Alisha's interest in theatre and performance (11:53)

Alisha's critical engagement with feminist writers on care (14:11)

The protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act in India (18:15)

The Shaheen Bagh protest and Alisha's relationship to it (21:52)

The ethos of care underlying the protest (25:10)

The practical care structures at Shaheen Bagh (30:42)

Care as performance (33:35)

The role of repetition and perpetuation in the performance of care (36:25)

Everyday caring activities as artful practices (41:21)

Storytelling as an ethical and aesthetic practice (46:21)

Interpersonal care nurturing a wider caring imagination (51:34)

The implications of Shaheen Bagh for thinking about protest as a form of care (57:18)

Shaheen Bagh as 'a template for a caring state' (01:01:30)

Alisha's involvement in The Care Lab and the CARE project in Manchester (01:05:40)

Some of the writers, thinkers and practitioners mentioned in the episode

Lila Abu-Lughod

Saba Mahmood

Sherine Hafez

Maurice Hamington (see Episode 6)

Carol Gilligan

Joan Tronto

Virginia Held

Nel Noddings

Daniel Engster

Kathleen Lynch

Ella Myers

Bettany Hughes

Amina Wadud

Amira Mittermaier

Heba Raouf Ezzat

Hi'ilei Hobart

Mia Sosa-Provencio (see Episode 19)

Sharankumar Limbale

Sarah Munawar (see Episode 13)

Réla Polonyi

Kate Maguire-Rosier

Jenny Harris

Elisa Imray Papineau

J.L.Austin

Daryl Martin

Other links

Jatra (Bengali folk theatre)

The Shaheen Bagh protest

'Land of My Dreams' (film by Nausheen Khan)

The Care Collective

You can download a transcript of the episode by following this link to the Careful Thinking Substack.

What ethical challenges are presented by caring for people with dementia? How should we understand - and respect - the personhood of those experiencing cognitive decline? And what can virtue ethics and care ethics contribute to the development of an alternative ethical model for dementia care?

These are some of the questions we explore in this episode, in conversation with Vince Mitchell. Vince is a Lecturer in Health and Social Care, specialising in mental health, at The Open University (UK). He is a qualified mental health nurse with experience of nursing people in a wide variety of clinical settings. Having graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Health Care Practice and a Master of Arts in Applied Ethics from the University of York, Vince undertook doctoral research at the University of Surrey, where he was awarded a PhD in 2016 for his thesis examining ethical frameworks for dementia care. Since then, he has published a number of articles and book chapters on the ethics of mental health nursing and on ethical practice in dementia care.

We discuss the following topics in this episode:

Vince's journey into nursing (02:15)

Working as a mental health nurse (04:50)

Bridging the worlds of philosophy and care practice (07:00)

The challenges that dementia presents for care providers (10:40)

The inadequacy of existing ethical models (13:15)

Some of the key ethical issues in dementia care (15:35)

Personhood and autonomy (19:08)

The personal identity challenge to advance directives (23:50)

Thomas Kitwood's model of person-centred care (30:10)

Julian Hughes' Situated Embodied Agent approach (34:13)

Personal dignity and human flourishing (36:19)

Introducing virtue ethics (39:55)

Vulnerability, interdependence and trust (43:05)

Care ethics, justice and the socio-political context of dementia care (47:55)

An alternative ethical model for dementia care (51:10)

Implementing the model in practice (55:35)

Vince's plans for future work in care ethics (58:50)

A selection of Vince's publications

'Ethics and mental health nursing' (2017)

'Ethical practice in dementia care' (2019)

Some of the writers and thinkers mentioned in the episode

Rebecca Dresser

Ronald Dworkin

Derek Parfit

Thomas Kitwood

Julian Hughes

Maurice Merleau-Ponty

Martin Buber

Martha Nussbaum

Emmanel Levinas

Aristotle

Immanuel Kant

Elizabeth Anscombe

Philippa Foot

Alasdair MacIntyre

Rosalind Hursthouse

Eva Kittay

James Thompson

Onora O'Neill

Carol Gilligan

Joan Tronto

Virginia Held

Michael Slote

You can download a transcript of the episode by following this link to the Careful Thinking Substack.

How can we ensure that people with intellectual disabilities participate fully in political life? What lessons can we learn from communities of care in which disabled and non-disabled people live together? And what should be the relationship between local communities of care and wider social and political structures?

These are some of the questions we explore in this episode, with Lorraine Krall McCrary. Lorraine is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Wabash College, a liberal arts school in Indiana, and a research associate at St Edmund's College, Cambridge. She has a doctorate in political theory from Georgetown University and previously taught at Washington University in St. Louis and at Villanova University. Lorraine's search brings together disability studies and feminist care ethics, and she also writes about topics in politics and literature, as well as the relationship between the family and politics. Lorraine is currently in the final stages of writing a book based on her most recent research, with the working title Care Communities: Politics in a Different Voice.

We discuss the following topics in this episode:

Lorraine's work as a political theorist and the roots of her interest in disability issues (02:35)

Hannah Arendt's theory of 'natality' (05:00)

Natality and the politics of birth at Auschwitz (07:36)

Bearing witness in dark times (10:45)

Lorraine's use of literary sources in her work on disability (12:40)

Jane Addams and the politics of human interconnectedness (16:05)

Lorraine's research with communities of care at L'Arche, Camphill, and Geel (21:13)

Towards a relational understanding of reason (28:58)

The idea of community in the political thought of Alexis de Tocqueville (33:00)

Jean Vanier and revelations of abuse at L'Arche (36:12)

Abuse as 'relational tyranny' (39:12)

The notion of subsidiarity in feminist care ethics and Catholic Social Teaching (44:08)

The role of the state in relation to communities of care (49:00)

Relational caring at a community level as cultivating a wider sense of social solidarity (52:57)

Future directions for Lorraine's research (56:20)

A selection of Lorraine's publications

'Geel's Family Care Tradition: Care, Communities, and the Social Inclusion of Persons with Disability' (2017)

'Re-Envisioning Independence and Community: Critiques from the Independent Living Movement and L'Arche' (2017)

'Natality and Disability: From Augustine to Arendt and Back' (2018)

'From Hull-House to Herland: Engaged and Extended Care in Jane Addams and Charlotte Perkins Gilman' (2018)

'The Politics of Community: Care and Agency in People with Intellectual Disabilities at L'Arche' (2020)

'"A Crooked Cross": Disability and Community in Flannery O'Connor' (2021)

'Bearing Witness to Natality: The Politics of Birth at Auschwitz' (2022)

'Disability and Subsidiarity: Toward Social and Political Inclusion' (with Parker Gamble, 2024)

Other publications discussed in the episode

Joan Tronto, Caring Democracy: Markets, Equality, and Justice

Maurice Hamington, Embodied Care: Jane Addams, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Feminist Care Ethics

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America and Memoir on Pauperism

Paul Elie, The Life You Save May Be Your Own: an American Pilgrimage

Some of the thinkers, writers and activists mentioned in the episode

Hannah Arendt

Alexis de Tocqueville

Augustine

Thomas Hobbes

John Locke

Pope Leo XIII

John Stuart Mill

Jane Addams

Alice Hamilton

Flannery O'Connor

Joan Tronto

Daniel Engster

Maurice Hamington

Sarah Lucas

Rudolf Steiner

Jean Vanier

Other relevant links

L'Arche

Camphill

Geel

Catholic Social Teaching

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