Description
The COVID-19 pandemic has made care visible. Images of nurses and doctors in protective clothing caring for seriously ill people, of people keeping their distance from each other and wearing masks to reduce the risk of infection, of parents trying to juggle working from home and homeschooling at the kitchen table, have shaped the media's view of the pandemic.
Not only did care emerge “from the shadows as a previously taken-for-granted afterthought of public life” (Fine & Tronto, 2020); but it was oftentimes emenshed with nostalgic, stereotypical and heavily gendered imaginaries of care.
“Care is never as visible as in situations where a way of life is shaken” (Laugier, 2021, p. 61). But what does this visibility tell us about the role of care in crises? Where is it to be welcomed from a care ethics perspective, and where should it be viewed critically? Assessing different visual material of the COVID-19 pandemic this paper explores the (in)visibility of care from an care-ethics perspective opening up the space for a critical engagement with care in contagious settings exploring the questions of: Who cares, how do we care and, above all, how do we visually relate to these questions?
