Urban Cultures of Care: Mapping (Un)Care in Urban Everyday Life

This paper elaborates on Joan Tronto’s feminist care ethics with a particular focus on her relational principle of caring-with. Drawing on her broad understanding of care, which includes both informal and formalised forms of care, we argue that the visualisation and interweaving of different practices, experiences, perceptions, spaces, infrastructures, and relationships of care highlight the relevance and emphasise the diversity, interrelations, and multilayered dimensions of care in everyday life in the city. Our considerations offer insights into the conceptual and practical development of a care map of the district of Gries in Graz, Austria. The map is created as a means to reflect on—and make visible—the multilayered dimensions of care in everyday life in the city. So far, it comprises a clustered inventory and mapping of care actors in the city and an analysis of maps created during care walks as a way to sense ordinary care practices. We conclude with a critical reflection of our approach and we discuss in which ways the visualisation of caring-with practices provides both challenges and opportunities to stress the political dimension of urban cultures of care.