Published In
Philosophies
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-2022
Subjects
Anthropocene, Political ecology, Bruno Latour, Caring -- Moral and ethical aspects, Caring -- Political aspects, Justice (Philosophy), Ethics, Social values, Social justice
Abstract
Bruno Latour is one of the founding figures in social network theory and a broadly influential systems thinker. Although his work has always been relational, little scholarship has engaged the relational morality, ontology, and epistemology of feminist care ethics with Latour’s actor–network theory. This article is intended as a translation and a prompt to spur further interactions. Latour’s recent publications, in particular, have focused on the new climate regime of the Anthropocene. Care theorists are just beginning to address posthuman approaches to care. The argument here is that Latourian analysis is helpful for such explorations, given that caring for the earth and its inhabitants is the dire moral challenge of our time. The aim here is not to characterize Latour as a care theorist but rather as a provocative scholar who has much to say that is significant to care thinking. We begin with a brief introduction to Latour’s scholarship and lexicon, followed by a discussion of care theorist Puig de la Bellacasa’s work on Latour. We then explore recent work on care and the environment consistent with a Latourian approach. The conclusion reinforces the notion that valuing relationality across humans and non-human matter is essential to confronting the Anthropocene.
Rights
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Locate the Document
DOI
10.3390/ philosophies7020031
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/37217
Citation Details
Flower, M., & Hamington, M. (2022). Care Ethics, Bruno Latour, and the Anthropocene. Philosophies, 7(2), 31.