Care and Capitalism by Professor Kathleen Lynch

Описание: About the event
The event is an online discussion about Professor Lynch’s book. The author will present her book after which discussants, Professors Herring and Reay, will respond and comment. There was a Q&A session at the end.

The event is organised by UCD Centre for Human Rights & UCD Equality Studies Centre.

About the book
In Care and Capitalism (Polity 2021), Lynch analyses the logics and ethics of neoliberal capitalism that dominate public discourses and politics in the early twenty-first century. She claimed that capitalism is neither invincible nor inevitable. While people are self-interested, they are not purely self-interested: they are bound affectively and morally to others, even to unknown others. The cares, loves and solidarity relationships within which people are engaged give them direction and purpose in their daily lives. they constitute cultural residuals of hope that stand ready to move humanity beyond a narrow capitalism-centric set of values.

Lynch sets out to reclaim the language of love, care and solidarity both intellectually and politically and to place it at the heart of contemporary discourse. Her goal is to help unseat capital at the gravitational centre of meaning-making and value, thereby helping to create logics and ethical priorities for politics that are led by care, love and solidarity.

About the author
Kathleen Lynch is Professor Emerita of Equality Studies at University College Dublin and a Commissioner at the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission. Professor Lynch has devoted her life’s work to promoting equality, human rights, and social justice through education and research.

‘One of the most significant books I have read in years. Lynch challenges many of the key assumptions underpinning neoliberalism and the norms that guide it. At the same time, she provides powerful and insightful alternatives.’
Michael W. Apple, Beijing Normal University and University of Wisconsin–Madison

‘This beautifully written indictment of neoliberal capitalism articulates a new definition of justice that goes beyond unfair appropriation to call out failures to reward necessary contributions to the public good. Impressive scholarship and passionate intensity make this book a stellar addition to the emerging discourse of care.’
Nancy Folbre, University of Massachusetts Amherst