Post #38

Mol Annemarie, Moser Ingunn, Pols Jeannette, "Care in practice: on tinkering in clinics", p. 13-14 Care implies a negotiation about how different goods might coexist in a given, specific, local practice. Though ‘negotiation’ is not quite the right term, as it calls up verbal argumentation. In practice, however, seeking a compromise between different ‘goods’ does not necessarily depend on talk, but can also be a matter of practical tinkering, of attentive experimentation. In care, then, ‘qualification’ does not precede practices, but forms a part of them. The good is not something to pass a judgement on, in general terms and from the outside, but something to do, in practice, as care goes on. And what if the doing fails? In traditional ethical repertoires, a failure to do good is a reason for moral blame, a negative verdict. In the ethics of care this is not so obvious. What follows from a failure, remains to be seen. /…/ Order, effectivity, efficiency, health or justice: in one way or another these may be achieved and if they are not, then someone is to blame. But in care versions of the world, the hope that one might live happily ever after is not endlessly fuelled. You do your best, but you are not going to live ‘ever after’. Instead, at some point, sooner or later, you are bound to die. /…/ what failure calls for in an ethics, or should we say an ethos, of care: try again, try something a bit different, be attentive. Thus if we had to summarise how the chapters of this book cast good care we would put it like this: persistent tinkering in a world full of complex ambivalence and shifting tensions.