Life crises and disasters: a discussion on the (anti-capitalist) ethics of care

Abstract

This article argues in favor of a resignification of the concept of disaster, capable of recognizing the role of structural socioeconomic injustices in catastrophes. By conceiving disasters as sudden naturalized phenomena, which is the general tendency of international organizations, the current global crisis of life and care is excluded in principle (which includes, in general, the serious problems that different human groups face in being able to self- manage their subsistence in a way that does not compromise present and future habitability). In this context, the contributions and problems of care ethics to disaster ethics are discussed, including paternalism/maternalism, sacrifice and exploitation. What the ethics of care can contribute to disaster contexts is, above all, the idea that cultivating processes of accompaniment, support and mutual attention will improve the management of life crises, but if we do not want to limit ourselves to complying mere palliative or rhetorical functions, it must acquire a commitment to modifying those conditions of structural injustice that exacerbate or cause these crises. In this sense, an anti-capitalist ethic of care not only highlights the virtues of caring, but also addresses the need to reconfigure the dialectic between the logic of capital and that of “letting grow and making it grow” (the logic of care) in such a way that the former does not precede or appropriate the second.