Careful Thinking

About Careful Thinking

At some point in our lives, we will all have the experience of caring for another person - or of being cared for ourselves. But what exactly is ‘care’, and what do we mean by ‘good’ care? How do our beliefs, identities, and the social, cultural and political contexts in which we live, shape our experience of caring or being cared for? And how can ideas, theories, and the findings from research, help us to think more care-fully – and to care more thoughtfully? Careful Thinking explores these and similar questions, inspired by a belief that thinking critically about care can both deepen our understanding and improve the everyday practice of care. In each episode of the podcast, you'll hear an in-depth conversation with a researcher, writer or practitioner at the cutting edge of current thinking about care. If you would like to give us your feedback, or suggest a guest or a topic for a future episode, you can get in touch at carefulthinkingpodcast@gmail.com. And you can leave comments on episodes and join in the discussion at https://carefulthinking.substack.com.

Publisher

Martin Robb

Category

education · science · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

19 Aug 2023

Latest episode

1 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

33 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   1 Sept 2026

   Organising with care - with Emmanouela Mandalaki

   What would it mean for organisations to take account of shared embodied vulnerability? In what ways do experiences of bodily fragility remind us of our need for care? And how can working collaboratively address the absence of care in higher education? These are some of the questions we explore in this episode, with Emmanouela Mandalaki. (https://neoma-bs.com/professors/mandalaki-emmanouela) Emmanouela is Professor of Organisations at NEOMA Business School (https://neoma-bs.com/)in Paris, France. In her research, Emmanouela engages with critical feminist theories, methodologies, writing patterns and epistemologies to explore alternative ways of exploring questions of embodiment, ethics, gender diversity, inclusion, social inequalities and affect in organisations. In this process, care ethics foregrounds much of her work. Emmanouela is a prolific writer whose work has appeared in many leading journals and edited collections. During her pre-academic and academic career, Emmanouela has worked in both for profit and not for profit international organisations in many countries, in the process acquiring a diverse range of social experiences that have fed into her academic research. We discuss the following topics in this episode: How Emmanouela's early experiences led to the work she is doing now (02:50) The aim and focus of Emmanouela's academic research (08:15) The theorists who have influenced Emmanouela's work (09:45) Emmanouela's introduction to feminist writing on organisations and care (11:50) Researching grassroots solidarity organising in the wake of the refugee crisis in Greece (14:10) Reflecting on a personal experience of bodily fragility and vulnerability (23:38) Critiquing an absence of care in higher education (28:12) On collaborative working and writing (32:12) Reading and writing together as a relational healing process (33:30) Poetry as a form of academic writing and a practice of care (38:47) Emmanouela's current work and plans for further research and writing (44:18) Some of the writers, thinkers and researchers mentioned in the episode Rosalyn Diprose (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalyn_Diprose) Judith Butler (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Butler) Bracha Ettinger (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracha_L._Ettinger) Maurice Hamington (https://www.mhamington.com/)(see Episode 6 (https://careful-thinking.captivate.fm/episode/revolutionary-care-with-maurice-hamington)) Alison Pullen (https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/persons/alison-pullen/) Carl Rhodes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Rhodes) Marianna Fotaki (https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/wbs/subjects/ohrm/people/academic_staff/marianna_fotaki/) Nancy Harding (https://researchportal.bath.ac.uk/en/persons/nancy-harding/) Erinn Gilson (https://www.skidmore.edu/philosophy/faculty/gilson.php) Alessia Contu (https://www.umb.edu/directory/alessiacontu/) Emma Bell (https://research.hhs.se/esploro/profile/emma_bell/overview) Sara Ahmed (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sara_Ahmed) Hélène Cixous (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A9l%C3%A8ne_Cixous) Publications by Emmanouela discussed in the episode 'A Feminist Ethics of Care for the Embodied Organizing of Solidarity: Lessons from the Refugee Crisis in Greece' (2025) (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-025-05974-2?utm_source=researchgate.net&utm_medium=article) 'Breaking the plaster: making do with the fragility of the body' (2023) (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gwao.12996) 'Co-constructing new ways of working: relationality and care in post-pandemic academia' (2022) (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14759551.2024.2323726) 'The word/world is out: (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13505084241238285)You are not alone (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13505084241238285): Toward a healing organizational autoethnography in/through feminist reading and writing' (2024) (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13505084241238285) Poetry and Organizing: Perspectives on the Use and Value of Poetry in Organization Studies (https://www.elgaronline.com/monobook-oa/book/9781035306695/9781035306695.xml)(2025) (https://www.elgaronline.com/monobook-oa/book/9781035306695/9781035306695.xml) 'Poetry as reflexive landscapes of inclusive potential' (2025) (https://www.elgaronline.com/monochap-oa/book/9781035306695/chapter2.xml) 'Organizational poetry as an embodied feminist practice' (2025) (https://www.elgaronline.com/monochap-oa/book/9781035306695/chapter3.xml) 'Breaking words and silences' (2025) (https://www.elgaronline.com/monochap-oa/book/9781035306695/chapter6.xml) Other publications referred to in the episode Torkild Thanem and David Knights, (https://methods.sagepub.com/book/mono/embodied-research-methods/toc#_)Embodied Research Methods (https://methods.sagepub.com/book/mono/embodied-research-methods/toc#_) (2019) (https://methods.sagepub.com/book/mono/embodied-research-methods/toc#_) Maurice Hamington and Ce Rosenow, (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-17978-6)Care Ethics and Poetry (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-17978-6)(2019) (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-17978-6) Other links 4.1 Miles (documentary) (https://hydrofem-manifesto.xyz/) Hydrofeminism (https://hydrofem-manifesto.xyz/) You can download a transcript of this episode by following this link (https://carefulthinking.substack.com/p/organising-with-care-with-emmanouela)to the Careful Thinking Substack newsletter.

2. 

   1 Jul 2026

   Disability, dependency, and care - with Eva Feder Kittay

   How can we ensure that the drive for gender equality acknowledges relationships of dependency and care? What kinds of social policies are needed to ensure that caregivers are properly supported and cared for? What can the experiences of people with disabilities teach us about what constitutes a 'good' life? And is it possible to achieve a balance between autonomy, dependency, and care? These are some of the questions we explore in this episode with Eva Feder Kittay, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Kittay) one of the pioneering voices in feminist care ethics and in the emergent field of the philosophy of disability. Eva is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Philosophy at Stony Brook University (https://www.stonybrook.edu/) in New York State, where she taught for many years. She received her bachelor's degree from Sarah Lawrence College in 1967 and went on to receive her doctoral degree from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York in 1978. Eva has published numerous articles on the philosophy of language, feminist philosophy, and disability studies, and her work has garnered several honours and prizes. In 1999, Eva published Love's Labor: Essays on Women and Equality (https://www.routledge.com/Loves-Labor-Essays-on-Women-Equality-and-Dependency/Kittay/p/book/9781138089921), a groundbreaking work in feminist philosophy, which has become one of the foundational texts of care ethics. Eva's work has been shaped in part by her experience as the mother of Sesha, a woman with significant disabilities, and in 2019 she published her book Learning From My Daughter: The Value and Care of Disabled Mind (https://academic.oup.com/book/36453)s (https://academic.oup.com/book/36453), which was the winner of the 2020 Prose Award for Excellence in Philosophy and which has recently been issued in paperback. We discuss the following topics in this episode: Eva's background as the child of Holocaust survivors, growing up in America in the 1950s and 1960s, and the roots of her vocation as a philosopher (02:37) Eva's introduction to feminism and political activism (05:30) The story behind Love's Labor (07:55) The 'dependency critique' of equality (18:10) The caregiver as 'dependency worker' (20:28) De-gendering care (22:52) 'Some mother's child': caring for caregivers (27:18) 'Connection-based equality', 'nested dependencies', and doulia (30:09) The limited role of the state in supporting care and the value of 'caring communities' (33:33) How Eva's relationship with her daughter Sesha has shaped her thinking - and the origins of Learning from My Daughter (37:28) Combining the personal and the philosophical in the writing process (39:47) Challenging conventional notions of what constitutes a 'good' life (42:42) Reproductive choice in the context of disability (46:03) Independence, dependency, and care ethics (49:30) The reception and completion of care (52:18) Bodily integrity and the body as a window on the soul (56:13) Eva's plan for a follow-up book on personhood and disability (59:00) Some of the publications discussed in the episode Simone de Beauvoir, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Second_Sex)The Second Sex (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Second_Sex) Sara Ruddick, (https://philpapers.org/rec/RUDMTT)Maternal Thinking: Towards a Politics of Peace (https://philpapers.org/rec/RUDMTT) Eva Feder Kittay and Diana T. Myers, (https://archive.org/details/womenmoraltheory0000unse)Women and Moral Theory (https://archive.org/details/womenmoraltheory0000unse) Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Father-Time-Natural-History-Babies/dp/0691238774/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=T4riS&content-id=amzn1.sym.5e81eabe-938d-4936-a067-ca199f0f9913&pf_rd_p=5e81eabe-938d-4936-a067-ca199f0f9913&pf_rd_r=522-9100707-7213232&pd_rd_wg=mLBjr&pd_rd_r=cf623df4-b1e2-436c-a4e1-a463ad35c85b)Father Time: A Natural History of Men and Babies (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Father-Time-Natural-History-Babies/dp/0691238774/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=T4riS&content-id=amzn1.sym.5e81eabe-938d-4936-a067-ca199f0f9913&pf_rd_p=5e81eabe-938d-4936-a067-ca199f0f9913&pf_rd_r=522-9100707-7213232&pd_rd_wg=mLBjr&pd_rd_r=cf623df4-b1e2-436c-a4e1-a463ad35c85b) Other writers and thinkers mentioned in the episode Carol Gilligan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Gilligan) John Rawls (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rawls) Martha Nussbaum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Nussbaum) Susan J. Brison (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Brison) You can download a transcript of this episode by following this link (https://carefulthinking.substack.com/p/disability-dependency-and-care-with) to the Careful Thinking Substack newsletter.

3. 

   1 Jun 2026

   Care and the pluriverse - with Maggie FitzGerald

   How can we make ethical decisions in a world that includes multiple and diverse forms of life, and what can care ethics contribute to developing a pluriversal ethics? What did the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrate about the nature of human vulnerability? And can violence ever be justified within an ethic of care? These are some of the questions we explore in this episode, with Maggie FitzGerald. (https://artsandscience.usask.ca/profile/MFitzGerald) Maggie is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Studies at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics with a specialisation in political economy from St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and a Master of Arts in Political Economy from Carleton University in Ottawa, where she also completed her doctorate in the Department of Political Science. Maggie's research focuses on the ethics of care, global ethics and international political theory, decolonial ethics, normative and critical international relations theory, and feminist political economy. Her work has appeared in journals such as Ethics and Social Welfare, the Journal of International Political Theory, and the International Journal of Care and Caring. Maggie is the author of the book Care and the Pluriverse: Rethinking Global Ethics (https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/care-and-the-pluriverse), which was published by Bristol University Press in 2022. She is also the co-editor with Sophie Bourgault and Fiona Robinson of the collection Decentering Epistemologies and Challenging Privilege: Critical Care Ethics Perspectives (https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/decentering-epistemologies-and-challenging-privilege/9781978835030), which was published by Rutgers University Press in 2024. We discuss the following topics in this episode: Maggie's professional and academic journey (02:41) Feminist theorists who have influenced Maggie's thinking (05:38) The 'pluriverse' as concept (07:29) Introducing Care and the Pluriverse (08:30) Using case studies from indigenous contexts (09:45) Decentering global ethics (12:20) A critique of modernity (16:12) Towards a critical, political ethics of care (17:53) COVID-19, vulnerability and the ethics of care (21:41) Combining Lacan, Žižek and care ethics(24:20) Decentering the self, decentering care (26:50) Violence, trauma, care and repair (33:20) Love and care (41:43) Maggie's plans for a new book on care and repair (47:20) Writers and thinkers mentioned in the episode Joan Tronto (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Tronto) Fiona Robinson (https://carleton.ca/polisci/people/robinson-fiona/) Sophie Bourgault (https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/view/profile/members/1010?lang=en) Tiina Vaittenen (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tiina-Vaittinen) Riikka Prattes (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Riikka-Prattes) Vrinda Dalmiya (https://philpeople.org/profiles/vrinda-dalmiya) Maurice Hamington (https://www.mhamington.com/) Kimberly Hutchings (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberly_Hutchings) Kate Schick (https://victoria.academia.edu/KateSchick) Margaret Urban Walker (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Urban_Walker) Marisol de la Cadena (https://www.marisoldelacadena.com/) Sara Ruddick (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sara_Ruddick) Carol Gilligan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Gilligan) Jacques Lacan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Lacan) Slavoj Žižek (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavoj_%C5%BDi%C5%BEek) Parvati Raghuram (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parvati_Raghuram) Sacha Ghandeharian (https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Sacha-Ghandeharian-2171774910) Naomi Snider (https://place.education.wisc.edu/blog/people/snider-naomi/) Michael Flowers (https://pdx.academia.edu/MFlower) Catia Confortini (https://www.wellesley.edu/people/catia-cecilia-confortini) Abigail Ruane (https://www.abigailruane.com/) Frantz Fanon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frantz_Fanon) Nancy Fraser (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Fraser) Elena Pulcini (https://ethicsofcare.org/remembering-elena-pulcini-philosopher-of-care/) bell hooks (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_hooks) Journal articles by Maggie discussed in the episode 'COVID-19, the trauma of the "real" and the political import of vulnerability' (https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journals/ijcc/6/1-2/article-p33.xml) 'Violence and Care: Fanon and the Ethics of Care on Harm, Trauma, and Repair' (https://www.mdpi.com/2409-9287/7/3/64) Other publications mentioned in the episode Margaret Urban Walker, (https://epublications.marquette.edu/marq_fac-book/46/)Moral Understandings: A Feminist Study in Ethics (https://epublications.marquette.edu/marq_fac-book/46/) Martin Robb, 'Knowing, loving, caring: some questions, connections and reflections' (Substack post) (https://carefulthinking.substack.com/p/knowing-loving-caring) Link Care Ethics Research Consortium (https://www.cerc2026.org/index.html) You can download a transcript of this episode by following this link (https://carefulthinking.substack.com/p/care-and-the-pluriverse-with-maggie)to the Careful Thinking Substack newsletter.

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Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

2 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

5 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 33 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

41

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

60

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