Defining and Claiming Care

As the anthropologists McKechnie and Kohn (1999) have argued, care is a concept currently coming to the fore in many contemporary debates, pushed on not just by the increasingly public character of care and the clash of its apparently altruistic values with consumerism and market-based efficiency, but also by medical and ethical debates linked to new technologies for diagnosis and intervention. What is understood by the term, its characteristics and the ideals it embodies is not fixed, but is currently being (re)constructed and refashioned, constantly fought over by various protagonists who seek to claim its mantle for their cause. But as the increasingly common cross-referral between perspectives suggests, there is also evidence of convergence around common themes, as the concept of care is defined and redefined to justify the claims and counter-claims made of it.