Abstract
Care, an aspect of social reproduction which includes the work of building,nurturing, and maintain ing human lives, is cen tral to political society , but
while our collective, inev itable dependency upon care cannot be disputed,
care practices are regularly side-lined in political decision-making.
Furthermore, many prominent theories of social justice intentionally exclude
care practices from the remit of their enquiry. Despite th is, care is a t the
heart of several important social and political concerns, from gender
equality to d isability justice. This thesis will propo se that the contemporary
governance of care practices reflects the ways in which care has been
underemphasised in political theories of social justice , suggesting that, in
order to find a better strategy for the governance of social care practices, a
new approach to theorising social justice must be constructed which can
comprehensively account for care within the scope of political justice .
Consequently, the theory of justice proposed by John Rawls will be
examined, in order to consider how th at theory, while propounding
important ideas about social justice, fails to appreciate the central
significance of social care practices within its social model – and is therefore
emblematic of recent social policies which have favoured ‘waged work’
models of social r eciprocity. I t wil l be proposed that an amended Rawlsian
account of social justice can be used to account for both dependency and
capability cr itiques of Rawlsian social justice proposals, so that a hybrid
theory of justice, buttressed by a scheme of contr ol-capabilities, will be
defended as a means to underpin a new approach to understanding the place
of care in social justice models . From this theory, it will be argued that care
ought to be integrated into the basic organisation of society by the creation
of a systematic approach to care governance . In pursuit of this outcome ,
various approaches to care governance will be discussed before an ‘agency-
centred’ approach to care governance is finally arrived upon as the approach
which is best placed to meet the demands for systematicness in care
governance, including by supporting the criteria for completeness,
accessibility and fairness proposed as the conditions for the just governance
of care practices.
| Date of Award | 3 Oct 2023 |
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| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Esther Dermott (Supervisor) & Timothy M Fowler (Supervisor) |