Dr Monika de Silva is an international relations scholar and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Gothenburg. She executes research projects on EU-Global South relations and postcolonial justice and on contestation of gender equality. She is interested in normative contestation in European internal and external relations amidst global power shifts, with a particular focus on diplomacy, human rights, global justice, legal norms, and gender and sexuality. Her professional experience includes work in the European External Action Service, the Council of Europe, and the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She holds a PhD in political science (University of Gothenburg), an Advanced MA in international relations and diplomacy of the EU (College of Europe), and a Master of Law (University of Warsaw). Her work has been published in outlets such as International Studies Quarterly, European Journal of International Relations, Journal of European Public Policy, and Politics & Governance.
In the European Union (EU) context, in recent years, ‘care economy’ has become a buzzword, not least thanks to the efforts of social democratic actors. With the adoption of the European Care Strategy in 2022, the EU consolidated its role as a particularly powerful actor in social protection of care work.
With this policy study, the authors seek to bring the discussion of care and policy back from its limited, limiting demarcation as a ‘care economy’ to its origins in feminist thought.
The authors briefly discuss feminist scholarship on the ethics of care, introduce the concept of a ‘care society’ and contrast it with the concept of a ‘care economy’.
The academics propose a guiding framework for analysing a policy from a care perspective. This framework can be applied to a policy in any policy domain and at any policy level.
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Political Mentor: Idoia Mendía, S&D Member of the European Parliament
