Theorising Care
Members of CIRCLE’s Theorising Care theme share the ambition to advance the social theorisation of care. They are interested in progressing the understanding and critical analysis of care by drawing on socio-theoretical frameworks as well as in developing socio-theoretical frameworks further by confronting them with questions and problems relating to care.
The group's work starts from the widely held notion that care is relational. Indeed, in most cases care is a relationship, as expressed by the concept of “care relations”. Moreover, care can shape social relations between individuals and groups, for instance family relationships or inequalities relating to gender or migration. Finally, care can be shaped by social relations, for example by existing power relationships.
While preceding research provides important insights into the relational aspects of care, much care research continues to be empirically and/or policy orientated. This orientation alone is insufficient for fully capturing and understanding the relational dimension of care. CIRCLE’s Theorising Care theme is dedicated to developing conceptions and conceptual configurations that are better suited for grasping, analysing, and examining the social relations that characterise care and caring.
Key areas of interest
Members of the Theorising Care theme approach the study of care in a number of different ways, for example examining paid care work and informal and everyday care relations. In addition, the interests of the group include (but are not limited to): critical perspectives on existing care relations and their conceptualisations; how care is practiced and theorised in different geographical contexts; how technology is envisaged and operated in relation to care; the institutional and organisational arrangements of care, including how care is governed or regulated; the political economy of care, for example how care is marketised and funded and how value is extracted; the ways in which the arrangement, resourcing, and evaluation of care (re)configure social relations; and historical perspectives on care and social change.
About the group
The CIRCLE Theory theme is led by Dr Matthias Benzer (School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations), Dr Will Mason (School of Education), and Ella Monkcom (doctoral student, School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations), who share a common interest in the theorisation of care. The theme leads organise a regular reading group session where they discuss existing work relating to social theory and care. If you are interested in getting involved in this reading group, please contact Dr Matthias Benzer (m.benzer@sheffield.ac.uk).
In 2025, the Theorising Care group were successful in their application to CIRCLE’s Strategic Funding Awards and began seeking collaborators for future development of the theme. Since this point, they have held a series of workshops which have been joined by Professor Ryan Powell (School of Geography and Planning) and Dr Grace Whitfield (Centre for Care). Members continue to meet on a semi-regular basis and are developing ideas about how to progress the theme’s work.