(S)caring Future I: Between utopian design and care work

Maria Pia Paternò; Giovanni Scarpato

doi:10.6093/978-88-6887-420-9

(S)caring Future I: Between utopian design and care work

Authors

Maria Pia Paternò

University of Naples Federico II

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6215-4281

Giovanni Scarpato

University of Naples Federico II

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6238-9574

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6093/978-88-6887-420-9

Keywords:

Utopia, Dystopia, Philosophy Of Care, Feminist Philosophy, Science Fiction

Synopsis

Publisher: FedOA - Federico II University Press

Series: Human & Future

Pages: 237

Language: Italian

Abstract: This book originates from a question concerning the relationship between politics and care, understood as the ability to relate and listen, take responsibility and be aware of human vulnerability. This field of study aims to rethink the public sphere, including a series of activities which, taken together, not only involve many people (particularly women, even today), but also occupy them for most of their time.

However, references to care are not very common in political discourse, with the exception of the utopian tradition. This volume aims to reflect on the ways in which utopia has imagined care work and, conversely, to investigate the disturbing scenarios outlined by dystopias, which present us with situations of negligence, inattention and neglect. The unease that lurks within them evokes fear rather than hope: they are true Scaring Futures. But the binomials utopia/dystopia and care/neglect do not always lend themselves to a univocal interpretation, as there are dystopias that contemplate utopias and utopias that are such only in the eyes of some. But perhaps it is precisely through this ambivalence that utopian-dystopian scenarios of care help us to imagine our future.

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Author Biographies

Maria Pia Paternò, University of Naples Federico II

Maria Pia Paternò is Full Professor of History of History of Political Thought at the Department of Political Science of the University of Naples Federico II. Among her latest monographs are: From Equality to Difference. Human Rights and Women's Citizenship in Modern Political Thought, Giuffrè, 2006; Women and Rights. Percorsi della politica dal Seicento a oggi (Women and Rights: Paths of Politics from the Seventeenth Century to Today), Carocci, 2012; Uno sguardo dal futuro. Edward Bellamy e la cura della società solidale (A Look from the Future: Edward Bellamy and the Care of a Supportive Society), Editoriale Scientifica, 2020. She has also edited several volumes on the theme of care, around which she coordinated a Jean Monnet project. These include: Cura dell’Altro. Interdependence and Inequality in Contemporary Democracies (2017) and, with Cintia Faraco, Care and Citizenship. History, Philosophy, Law (2021) and Care and Politics (2022), published by Editoriale Scientifica.

Giovanni Scarpato, University of Naples Federico II

Giovanni Scarpato is a researcher in the History of History of Political Thought at the Department of Political Science of the University of Naples Federico II. He has published articles and monographs on Italian and French political thought, with particular reference to the philosophy of Vico and libertine traditions. His latest book, Occasioni di libertà.Percorsi del libertinismo politico tra Italia e Francia (Mimesis 2024).