CareVisions: Re-envisioning a care-centred society in Ireland beyond COVID-19

Edwards, Claire; Daly, Felicity; Kelleher, Carol; Loughnane , Cliona; O’Riordan, Jacqui

CareVisions: Re-envisioning a care-centred society in Ireland beyond COVID-19

Files

CareVisions final report Dec.2023.pdf(2.81 MB)

Date

2023-12

Authors

Edwards, Claire

Daly, Felicity

Kelleher, Carol

Loughnane , Cliona

O’Riordan, Jacqui

Publisher

Institute for Social Science in the 21st Century (ISS21), University College Cork

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and current social, economic, and environmental crises have brought the significant deficits and inequalities in current care practices and policies in Ireland and globally into sharp focus. The challenges exposed by these crises suggest that there is an urgent need to re-evaluate and re-envision the significance of care relations, policies, and practices in contemporary society (Fine and Tronto, 2020). Despite the ‘carelessness’ witnessed during the pandemic (Chatzidakis et al., 2020), COVID-19 also provided glimpses of alternative ways of care and caring, revealing interdependencies within and between communities and between those giving and receiving care. This report presents findings from a three year (2020-23), interdisciplinary, participatory research project entitled CareVisions, based in the Institute for Social Science in the 21st Century (ISS21) at University College Cork, which explored care experiences during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic to re-imagine future care relations, practices, and policies in Ireland and internationally. Core to the project is a recognition that we need to rethink how we conceptualise the term care itself. The project aims to advance knowledge about the meaning of care in people’s lives and stimulate critical public debate about how we can envision alternative care futures. CareVisions Aims and Objectives: The key aim of the CareVisions project is to reflect on care experiences during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic to explore and reimagine how we might envision future care relations, practices and policies in Ireland. Its objectives are: To re-imagine and envision future care relations, practices and policies drawing on and developing a feminist ethics of care approach; To explore the social, political, and ethical implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for future care relations, practices, and policies in Ireland; To build a collaborative, interdisciplinary network of scholars, policymakers and community/voluntary organisations committed to advancing knowledge, theory and public policy debate about the ethics and practice of care within and beyond Ireland.

Keywords

COVID-19 , Care , Ethics , Practice , Ireland

Citation

Edwards, C., Daly, F., Kelleher, C., Loughnane, C. and O’Riordan, J. (2023) 'CareVisions: Re-envisioning a care-centred society in Ireland beyond COVID-19'. Cork: Institute for Social Science in the 21st Century (ISS21), University College Cork.