Joan C. Tronto, emeritus professor of the City University of New York and the University of Minnesota and one of the greatest exponents of the ethics of care and democracy, will visit the UAB and offer a conference at the Rectorat building on 10 October. The conference will be open to all members of the community and will focus on the revolutionary potential of a care democracy.
Her theories have served as a foundation in fields such as nursing and the processes of humanisation in the fields of health, ethics, sociology and studies on sexual divisions of labour, economics, political science, and also in the arts and architecture, among others.
In her books Moral Boundaries, Caring Democracy and Who cares?, Professor Joan C. Tronto details her conceptual approach to care, particularly relevant given the many transdisciplinary areas in which it has been implemented. Her fundamental premise is that we cannot think about care―understood as what allows us to live as best as possible―without understanding the social and political context in which it is taking place.
The title of her conference, organised by the UAB Department of Philosophy, is "The Revolutionary Potential of a Care Democracy", which she will read out in Spanish. At the end of the conference a debate will be held with the attendants. The event will take place on Thursday 10 October at 4 p.m.
According to Tronto, the nature of the human being is relational: we depend on each other and that is why we need a policy where the care needs of all citizens are a priority over and above the interests of the "free market". The professor speaks not only of an ethics of responsibility, attention to difference and context, nor of a policy that is inclusive, participatory and fair, but of how to rethink the very foundation of the "good life".
There are many disciplines that drink from her reflections in a feminist key to make a critical analysis of social, political and economic order and to formulate transformative proposals that promote global justice.
The philosophy of the professor emeritus of the City University of New York and the University of Minnesota has served as a foundation in fields as diverse as nursing and the processes of humanisation of health, ethics, sociology and studies on the sexual division of labor, economics, political science, and also the arts and architecture, among others.
She was awarded just a year ago with the Benjamin E. Lippincott Award given by the American Political Science Association in recognition of the exceptional and high-impact work of a living political theorist and her work has been translated over the years into multiple languages and lately also into Catalan (Democràcia i cura and Qui se'n cuida?, both published by Raig Verd).
The conference will take place on 10 October from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the conference hall of the Rectorat building and is open to all members of the UAB, and all those committed to caring for others, regardless of their profession.
