Care and Capitalism: Moving beyond Capitalocentric thinking about equality, social justice and politics

24 Jan 2022

In this online seminar, Kathleen Lynch (Professor Emerita of Equality Studies, UCD) discussed a number themes from her recently published book Care and Capitalism (Polity Press, 2021). One of the central arguements is that while the logics and ethics of neoliberal capitalism currently dominate public discourses and politics, capitalism is neither invincible nor inevitable. Affective relations are potential sites for a counter-movement to neoliberalism. While people are self-interested, they are not purely self-interested: they are bound affectively and morally to others, even to unknown others. The cares, loves and solidarity relationships within which people are engaged give them direction and purpose in their daily lives. They constitute cultural residuals of hope that stand ready to move humanity beyond a narrow capitalism-centric set of values. 

The seminar was hosted by the CareVisions project in collaboration with ISS21, and chaired by Dr Jacqui O'Riordan, CareVisions team member and co-convenor of the ISS21 CARE21 Research Cluster.

A recording of the seminar is available here

Biography

Kathleen Lynch is a sociologist, Professor Emerita of Equality Studies at University College Dublin (UCD), and an Adjunct Professor in the UCD School of Education. She has worked over many years to promote equality and social justice through research, education and activism. Her teaching and research are guided by the belief that the purpose of scholarship and research is not just to understand the world but to change it for the good of all humanity. She was awarded the President of Ireland prize for her scholarly work on equality by the Irish Research Council in 2019 and appointed a Commissioner of the Irish Equality and Human Rights Commission in 2020. 

For more on this story contact:

The CareVisions Team at: carevisions@ucc.ie