Kathleen Lynch, Care and Capitalism: Why Affective Equality Matters for Social Justice

Abstract

The critique of capitalism is a mainstay of sociology from its foundations to the present: Kathleen Lynch ’ s work adds to this immense literature by focusing on care. This is a vital move, as it articulates a clear positive value, not just an abstract ideal, but a concrete prac-tice which sustains society – care makes meaningful human life possible. For Lynch, care is central to society, even part of human nature, and drawing on feminist scholarship from Hochschild to hooks she outlines how caring relationships sustain individuals, families, neighbourhoods, communities and even global interconnections. Perhaps the central chapter of the book is on care as ‘ love-labour ’ , not restricted to intim-ate romantic relations or even family, but all kinds of attentive support. Crucially, Lynch claims that care is both inalienable and non-substitutable, two conditions which resist the expropriative and exchange mechanisms of capitalism. While labour can be managed and manufactured – even in care-giving settings from creches to nursing homes – care itself is integrally about personal relationships. Furthermore, while labour – and all other things – are substitutable in capital, caring relations cannot easily be marketed, up-scaled, maxi-mised or fi nancialised. – Lynch ’ relationships. undermin-ing