Cities of care: A platform for urban geographical care research

Abstract

This paper develops an agenda for a broadened conceptualisation of urban caring within geographical research. We open by identifying three existing domains of urban care research: examining spaces of care, materialities of care, and asking who are the subjects of care? We then synthesise three platforms that can be the foundation of a geographical theory and approach to urban care. Drawing from feminist care research and recent keystone pieces on urban caring, we argue, first, that there is a need for a broadened conceptualisation of urban care that emphasises the universal need for care and care that supports human and non-human flourishing. Second, we propose an expanded scale of urban care analysis that attends to the ways that lives are lived within and through the city. Third, we open up an analysis of where care is located in cities,arguing for the value of locating urban care beyond interpersonal care and care through welfare, to urban governance and planning, markets, and more-than-human materialities. We conclude by conceptualising how care might inform utopian dreamings for the just and caring city.We challenge urban geographers to think through the possibilities of care to transform cities. K E Y W O R D Scare, care policy, justice, markets, materiality, spaces of care, urban geography

Geographies of care work: The commodification of care, digital care futures and alternative caring visions

“…In addition, authors have broadened our understanding of what we usually perceive as spaces of care. Looking beyond the home and specialised care institutions such as day care facilities, drop‐in centres, and nursing homes as fixed sites of care, Power and Williams (2019), for instance, suggest exploring the city through the lens of care and ask: What does it take to create a city that cares? In doing this, they and others further expand subjects of care to include more‐than‐human care agents.…”

“…In doing this, they and others further expand subjects of care to include more‐than‐human care agents. Drawing attention to the materialities of care, they imagine the material urban world as a caregiver and ask how buildings or public spaces must be constructed so that they can take over caring roles (Power & Williams, 2019). In a similar vein, Puig de La Bellacasa (2017) argues for a speculative move of reconceptualising natural entities, such as soil, as caring.…”

“…The latter offer a similar care‐centred perspective and extend the notion of caring beyond humans to our relations with our non‐human environment (cf. Power & Williams, 2019; Puig de La Bellacasa, 2017).…”

De ciudades que producen a ciudades que cuidan. Los territorios como ejes para abordar la pandemia y la crisis social

“…Por otro lado, existe una discusión sobre quiénes son sujetos de cuidado, ya que estos no solo son receptores de cuidado, sino que también son activos dadores de cuidado, es decir, estas relaciones son siempre interdependientes. Estos posibles sujetos pueden incluir a las personas sin casa, migrantes indocumentados, allegados, niños, adultos mayores, jóvenes, el medio ambiente y las cooperativas alimenticias, entre muchos otros (Power & Williams, 2020).…”

Care, commoning and collectivity: from grand domestic revolution to urban transformation

“…We take inspiration from research on the critical geographies of home (Brickell 2012;Blunt & Dowling, 2006), to conceptualize these domestic revolutions as simultaneously material, symbolic, and imagined and constantly made and remade through the labors of social reproduction, taking place at multiple geographic scales. We also engage with and sit amongst a cadre of feminist urban geographers theorizing urban inequalities, politics, and activism (Jupp, 2017;Klodawsky et al, 2013) and calling for more just, "carefull" urban spaces (Power & Williams, 2019;Williams, 2017), as well safer and more inclusive cities (Viswanath, 2013). In doing so, we bring Hayden's domestic revolution into dialogue with a broader set of domesticities, materialities, spatialities, and political struggles beyond the home.…”