Format/Structure

8-10 selected contributions or “patches” set the tone for the narrative-building process and other participants respond and extend the dialogue.

Long Abstract

Amidst overlapping ecological, economic, social, and political crises, how do processes of resistance and transformation open spaces for engagement with care and social reproduction? How do we practice care without concealing its limits, asymmetries, and potential complicities? Recognizing that 'care' is political and multifaceted, this participatory workshop will explore conceptualizations, experiences, theories and ethics of care towards cultivating equitable resilience, wellbeing, and (re)building relationships between human and more-than-human natures.

Practices, ethics, and ontologies of care are embedded with resistance and emancipation, capable of challenging systems of exploitation while sustaining human and more-than-human life amid the ruins of extractive regimes. Yet, we remain critically aware of the risk of appropriating care for capital accumulation and interrogate these complexities and tensions. Drawing from decolonial, social reproduction, and feminist political ecology – theoretical and experiential engagements across diverse geographies – we ask, what does it mean to resist through nourishment, repair, and maintenance between humans and more-than-human worlds in times that privilege efficiency, extraction, and disposability?

The session combines theoretical reflections, applications and collective practices that make visible and tangible the (dis)connections between bodies-territories-knowledges by proposing ways to inhabit and nurture life committed to socio-ecological care and justice. Using the metaphor of patchwork, the workshop will combine textile-based methods with various approaches for presenting and facilitating conceptual, experiential, and theoretical engagements with care, political ecology, and social reproduction. Participants will explore the intersections between bodies, places, and knowledge, based on their ways of being, lived experiences, or conceptual or empirical work. Traditional academic papers, presentations, narrative-based accounts, audio-visual pieces or other forms of creative engagement are all welcome. This session invites contributions to plant the seeds for the workshop, fostering dialogue around alternative world-making practices to visualize the transformative potential of cultivating care in times of fracture and uncertainty.

This Panel has 13 pending paper proposals.
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