Convenors
Paola Bonizzoni, University of Milan
paola.bonizzoni@unimi.it
Giacomo Lampredi, University of Milan
giacomo.lampredi@unimi.it
Multiple and repeated crises — stemming from various events, such as environmental, military, migratory, and health-related issues — along with their resulting social, economic, and political divisions and polarizations, have, in recent years, contributed to reconfiguring the role of volunteering, the third sector, and social movements in civic life. On one hand, the lexicon of «care» (Chatzidakis et al., 2020) is increasingly employed by these actors to articulate their engagement across a multitude of fields. On the other hand, the concept (or ethics) of care has proven to be a valuable tool in academic discourse for exploring the potential directions of social and political transformation in response to emerging societal challenges (Tronto, 2013; Lancione, 2014; Puig de la Bellacasa, 2017; Morgan, 2020). In this context, care suggests a sense of commitment, involvement, attention, and responsibility that individuals choose to extend toward the needs of others, communities, and the broader environments in which they live. This panel seeks to gather contributions that explore the various ways in which civil society actors—ranging from volunteers (Eliasoph, 2013; Milligan, 2017), third-sector organizations (Nelson et al., 2024), social movements (Casas-Cortes, 2017; Santos, 2020), and informal, proximity-based, or self-help groups — engage in caring for the very fabric of togetherness. By responding to shared challenges, these actors collectively generate goods, services, resources, and networks that complement, offer alternatives to, or openly contrast with institutional ones. The goal is to determine whether and why the practices of these actors, engaging with diverse issues (such as migration, the environment, urban experiences, gender, education, new vulnerabilities, and poverty), can be understood through the conceptual lens of care, with the aim of shaping a shared research agenda around the notion of «civic care».
Open questions
- What are the methodological and epistemological implications of using the lens of care in qualitative social research?
- Under what conditions can the practices of different civil society actors be understood as forms of «civic care», aimed at collectively generating, regenerating, or transforming specific goods and services of collective utility and public policy relevance?
- What is the potential transformative role of civic care in shaping shared social values and practices?
Keywords
ethics of care; civil society; ethnography; social crisis.
Sub-disciplines or cross-disciplinary areas of concern
sociology; anthropology; geography; pedagogy; volunteering; social movements; social crises; urban space; ethnography.
References
Casas-Cortes, M.
2019 «Care-tizenship: Precarity, Social Movements, and the Deleting/Re-Writing of Citizenship», in Citizenship Studies, 23, 1, pp. 19-42.
Chatzidakis, A., Hakim, J., Litter, J., Rottenberg, C.
2020 The Care Manifesto: The Politics of Interdependence, Verso Books.
Eliasoph, N.
2013 The Politics of Volunteering, John Wiley & Sons.
Lancione, M.
2014 «Assemblages of Care and the Analysis of Public Policies on Homelessness in Turin, Italy», in City, 18, 1, pp. 25-40.
Milligan, C.
2017 Geographies of Care: Space, Place and the Voluntary Sector, Routledge.
Morgan, M.
2020 Care Ethics and the Refugee Crisis: Emotions, Contestation, and Agency, Routledge.
Nelson, M. L., Saragosa, M., Miller, R.
2024 «The Third Sector in Integrated Care: Partner, Provider, or Both?», in International Journal of Integrated Care, 24, 3.
Puig de la Bellacasa, M.
2017 Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More than Human Worlds, University of Minnesota Press.
Santos, F. G.
2020 «Social Movements and the Politics of Care: Empathy, Solidarity and Eviction Blockades», in Social Movement Studies, 19, 2, pp. 125-143.
Tronto, J. C.
2013 Caring Democracy: Markets, Equality, and Justice, New York University Press.
Convenors’ bios
Paola Bonizzoni is a Full Professor in the Department of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Milan. For many years, she has focused on migration-related topics as a researcher, volunteer, and activist. She has developed a particular interest in female and family migration, second-generation immigrants, migration policies, and the role of volunteering in the reception and social inclusion of refugees.
Giacomo Lampredi is a research fellow at the Department of Social and Political Sciences of the University of Milan. His research interests include the sociology of emotions, care ethics, and qualitative research. He has primarily focused his work on migrant solidarity and environmental conflicts.