Paper short abstract:

Addressing situated care practices brings up questions related to both ontology and normativity. Drawing on the studies of Annemarie Mol, the contribution reconstructs the analytical connection between normativity and care and argues for a plurality of formats in dealing with this relationship.

Paper long abstract:

Strongly connected with the work of Annemarie Mol (2002, 2008, 2012), analyses of care enable a switch from a discussion on encompassing care standards towards the practices in which care is done. On the one hand, this means focusing on the particular ways in which medical practitioners and patients engage with and differently enact their material environment along caring practices. In a theoretical perspective, care thus relegates to the ongoing discussions on ontology in the STS (Woolgar and Lezaun 2013). On the other hand, studying care also enables STS researchers to draw on questions regarding values and (e)valuation considered analytical approachable in situated practices of care. In a methodological perspective, care rendered the background for conceptualizing "ontonorms" (Mol 2013) or "intra-normativities" (Pols 2010) as normative stances informing practices.

Nevertheless, reflections on normativity are unequal developed. While the importance of a normative reference for understanding multiple ontologies is intensively addressed in STS, the bonds between care and normativity are seldom thematic. My contribution takes up this second point and aims to indicate different modes in which normativity can relate to care. I explore the career of this salient relationship in a concentric format: I firstly point at the initial relevance of bridging between normativity and care; I then follow Mol's attempts of grasping normativity beyond care practices; and against this background I finally argue for both possible extensions of normativity in the study of care and for alternative options in dealing with this relationship.