Jamie Vinikoor ’20 MArch Columbia GSAPP

annals of architecture...

2017 - 2020

Jamie Vinikoor —

Projects — 01

Empowering Lima’s Migrant Community

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Woven Walls Childcare Facility

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Block Church in Newburgh

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Courtyard Housing in the South Bronx

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Interactive Children’s Library

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Community Pier

Studies — 62

GAP I: Design and Typography

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Transitional Geometries

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Architectural Drawing & Representation I

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Architectural Photography

Writing — 86

Informal Cities

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The Ethics of Care

PUIGJANER STUDIO

JAMIE VINIKOOR

Empowering Lima’s Migrant Community

Incorporatingstrategicallybuiltinfrastructure and key programs along the edge of a barriada in the district of San Juan de Lurigancho, our project empowers the new migrant communities moving into Lima, Peru, through the act of hosting, allowing them to better integrate into society and help reduce discrimination by making them active and essential members of the larger local community.

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Critic: Anna Puigjaner Collaborator: Luna Yue Zuo

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PUIGJANER STUDIO

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ROBERTS STUDIO

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Woven Walls Childcare Facility Critic: Bryony Roberts

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Pivoting woven fabric dividers separate spaces in this childcare facility, rotating and shifting to accommodate different activities throughout the day. Communal space with amenities is shared between the childcare facility and adjacent housing for teachers and staff.

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ROBERTS STUDIO

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ROBERTS STUDIO

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JAMALEDDINE STUDIO

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2. EMPTY LOTS 1. CEILING & FLOOR PLATES COLLAPSED

3. BUILDING IN RELATIVELY GOOD CONDITION

Block Church in Newburgh

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Through an investigation of the architecture and the social and educational programmatic capacity of the existing AME Zion Church in Newburgh, New York, we critically unpacked its historical evolution and proposed a plan to address the church’s changing needs as they move into the future. Using the opportunity presented by the many vacant and empty lots in Newburgh and employing local and recycled materials, we expand the church program onto these underutilized lots on the church’s block in a phased scheme to help attract a younger population of congregants to the church and to broaden their influence in the community.

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Critic: Ziad Jamaleddine Collaborator: Tim Zhou

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JAMALEDDINE STUDIO

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BUNGE STUDIO

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Courtyard Housing in the South Bronx Critic: Eric Bunge Collaborators: Brenda Lim & Krista Wiryomartono

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The courtyard serves as a passage that frames the body of this housing complex— with communal and shared spaces linking six unit blocks. Private winter gardens in the interior of each building are integrated within the plan to provide a year-round collective space for residents. The façade is a system of extended aluminum fins, layering opacity for visual privacy and visual continuity.

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BUNGE STUDIO

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BUNGE STUDIO

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BUNGE STUDIO

MICROUNITS

ONE BEDROOM

THREE BEDROOM

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KIPPING STUDIO

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Interactive Children’s Library

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Moving libraries into the future in a playful way, this children’s library takes a variety of cues from the Google Cardboard VR headset. Using the simplicity of the folding of the headset and of origami as inspiration, this library incorporates a tessellated facade. In the interior, there is a focus on the Makerspace and technology spaces, particularly geared toward to the children and teens of the neighborhood. Different floors house different programs roughly according to the potential levels of activity and noise, moving up through the space to quieter, more contemplative and intimate spaces on the higher floors of the building, including the more traditional reading spaces and stacks.

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Critic: Gordon Kipping

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KIPPING STUDIO

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KIPPING STUDIO

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UHL STUDIO

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Community Pier

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Echoes of the historic industrial piers along this stretch of river extend into the water and form the basis of this new pier. The circular form ties it all together, serving to unify the pier and making it possible for visitors to slow down as they experience the walk around the outside. The pier aims to serve as a space for community-building and to increase the vibrancy and texture of the East River Park.

The program includes: a beach, a playground, an amphitheater, a set of raised stairs for lounging and sunbathing that provides a prime view across the river, a two-story enclosed building with glass sides and an accessible roof that has a cafĂŠ and an art gallery/event space inside, and a kayak/jet ski launch.

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Critic: Josh Uhl

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UHL STUDIO SECTION 1/16”= 1’-0”

SECTION 1/16”= 1’-0”

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ON THE ROAD

JACK KEROUAC

ON THE ROAD

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ON THE ROAD

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GAP I: DESIGN AND TYPOGRAPHY

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ON THE ROAD

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Fig. 7 Infrared absorption spectrum of gamboge sample (fig. 1) (film cast out from acetone). From Walter R. Hopwood, Conservation Analytical Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, Washington.

Fig. 4 Chemical structures of resin components of Garcinia species.

A. Gambogic acid: R1=(CH2)2C=CH(CH2)2, R2=C02H, R3=CH3.

B. Isogambogic acid: R1=(CH2)2C=CH(CH2)2, R2=CH3, R3=C02H. C. Morellic acid: R1=R3=CH3, R2=C02H. D. Isomorellic acid: R1=R2=CH3, R3=C02H. E. Morellin: R1=R3=CH3, R2=CHO. F. Morellinol: R1=R3=CH3, R2=CH2OH. G. Isomorellinol: R1=R2=CH3, R3=CH2OH. H. Desoxymorellinol: R1=R2=R3=CH3.

I. Dihydroisomorellin.

J. Neogambogic acid.

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Fig. 5 Photomicrograph of gamboge in partially crossed polars, seen as a yellow stain on crystalline particles of shell white (calcium carbonate).

Mounted in Canada balsam, n=l.53. From a seventeenth-century Japanese screen by an unknown Ukiyo-e School artist. Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington 03.208. 130x.

Fig. 2 Utagawa Kuniyuki, An Oiran Standing by a Plum Tree, Japan, Edo period, mid-nineteenth century, Ukiyo-e School; painting, color and gold on silk. Yellow areas in the woman’s clothing are gamboge over shell white.

Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington 98.420.

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Fig. 6 Thin-layer chromatography of gamboge; 10 × 5 cm fluorescent plate seen under 254 nm ultraviolet illumination. Sample shown in fig. 1.

A. Gamboge, 10 µg.

C. Gamboge, l µg.

B. Gamboge, 3 µg.

D. Gambogic acid.

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GAP I: DESIGN AND TYPOGRAPHY

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Actors Sanjô Kantarô II and Ichimura Takenojô IV Torii Kiyotada I

The Selden Map: A Chinese Map of East Asian Shipping Routes Unknown

A Puppet-Show: The Story of the “Potted Trees” Bunkaku

9th Century Thai Manuscript Unknown

The Lute and White Snake of Benten (Sarasvati) Katsushika Hokusai

One Hundred Aspects of the Moon: Cassia-Tree Moon Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

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TRANSITIONAL GEOMETRIES

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ARCHITECTURAL DRAWING & REPRESENTATION I

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ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY

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ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY

JAMIE VINIKOOR

HISTORIES OF AMERICAN CITIES

The topic of informal cities was an especially resonant one for me this semester. In this essay, I will discuss what informal cities are, how and where they arose, and how architecture can engage them. Informal or kinetic cities are contrasted with formal or static cities. Informal cities are self-constructed settlements that are not formalized. Informal cities can be seen in the urban landscapes of Latin America, Asia, and Africa (Hernandez xi). The context out of which they arose is important to understanding their nature, and architecture has the potential to engage with informal cities in a variety of productive ways as we move into the future.

It is useful to dig deeper into what informal cities are and what constitute their typical characteristics. First, as mentioned above, they are kinetic rather than static. Informal cities are also not monumental. They are more fragile in nature and smaller and more individualized in scale. Informal cities usually are associated with transit by foot. Almost always, they are located on the periphery of cities and on less desirable land. For instance, they might be located on steep hills. Materials that make up the structures of informal cities include scraps, recycled metals, plastic sheets, waste wood, and canvas, many of these being found materials rather than purchased. They also have a temporary quality or a temporal dimension. In formal cities, there is an erasure of the local, and they prioritize urban form, while in informal cities, there is an architecture that is constantly being modified or transformed. The logic here is local, and oftentimes there is not an overarching plan governing the layout. Informal cities tend to also resist government and formal systems. Eventually, though, standards and systems may start getting applied regularly, in a standard unit. In many cases, they are concrete-framed buildings, and incremental architectural changes are made by the workers. For example, a household will add another floor on as their family grows over time. It is worth noting that, with informal cities, there is growth overall that is uneven.

The kinetic quality of informal cities should be particularly stressed. “Flow, instability and indeterminacy are basic to the kinetic city” (Hernandez xii). Unfortunately, in many cases, people living in informal cities have a precarious and tenuous relationship to them. There may even be regular demolitions of the structures there, which would inhibit the occupants from putting much, if any, investment into their surroundings. A strategy to avoid eviction may even be to remain as mobile and temporal as possible. The end result is a fluid and dynamic informal city, continually recycling its resources, creating a lot from very little (Hernandez xii). Similarly, “the processions, festivals, street vendors and dwellers, all result in an ever-transforming streetscape – a city in constant motion whose very physical fabric is characterised by this kinetic quality” (Hernandez xi).

It is useful to compare the term “slum” to “informal city” and to clarify the difference between the concepts. The term “slum” is a very pejorative term, so the term “informal settlement” is often the more appropriate one to use, but the word “slum” has been reintroduced recently as a way to differentiate between two different situations. The “slum” criteria that is used by the United Nations currently takes into account the following: (1) inadequate access to safe water and sanitation, (2) structural impermanence or poor structural quality, (3) a dangerous location, (4) overcrowding, and (5) insecure residential status.

Relatedly, it is important to note that there are some key dangers associated with living in informal cities. They are often precarious situations. Natural disasters more frequently strike these areas. For example, mudslides are common because of the materials used to build the structures and because many informal cities are placed on less desirable land, such as on steep hillsides. People in informal cities may also be living next to toxic factories or on contaminated land. Fires are a serious threat as well, in particular because the materials these buildings are constructed with are often not fireproof. Further, the biggest problem is

typically air pollution and what to do with trash and excrement. There are often no toilets or plumbing in these places. Diseases like cholera can be rampant, and they usually affect young children most significantly since they’re the most vulnerable and susceptible group to these illnesses. This a contributor to a major public health crisis.

On the other hand, there are a few important misconceptions about informal cities that deserve clarification. First, there is normally a negative connotation associated with the word “informal” versus “formal,” particularly within the architectural community. “[I]nformal is a derogatory term used to dismiss anything that escapes the realm and control of the architect” (Hernandez 2). However, these value-laden terms must not be allowed to color the way we think of informal cities. Second, often middle-class people also live in these places, not just members of the poorest and the lowest class. “It is not necessarily only the city of the poor, as most images and discussions of the informal city might suggest; rather it is a temporal articulation and occupation of space which not only creates a richer sensibility of spatial occupation, but also suggests how spatial limits are expanded to include formally unimagined uses in dense urban conditions” (Hernandez xii). Discussions about the informal city must in fact begin by expanding the usual definition of “informal” to extend past this general understanding of it as being for only the poor and marginalized in society. There are lessons to be learned, also, from innovations that these people have to offer. “That is, their ability to absorb, recycle, provide services, establish networks, celebrate, play and essentially extend the margins of the urban system to new levels of robustness. In short, informal urbanism or the kinetic city is about invention within strong constraints with indigenous resources with the purpose of turning odds into a survival strategy – often a sustainable strategy” (Hernandez xiii). Further, the discussion should not only focus around different terms but also include broader questions about alternative ways to frame the issue as well as making space for analyzing the “hybrid, simultaneity, notions of coexistence” (Hernandez xiv). Reframing the debate about the informal city would ideally help us to better appreciate and recognize its value and to incorporate it more into the context of discussions of contemporary urbanism.

“It is with this shift that the informal city would perhaps be seen not as a condition that needs to be remade but rather as a contagious phenomenon that actually remakes and humanises cities” (Hernandez xiv). One final assertion to make, in order to dispel another misconception, is that there can in fact be a “form of the informal” (Hernandez 24).

Informal cities arose in particular places because of specific forces at play at various scales. Informal cities are found in cities in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. In most cities of the modern world, multiple forms of urbanism exist together in the same space, and, in a way, they collapse down upon each other, generating particular urban conditions (Hernandez xi). In Latin American, Asian, and African cities, where there is already the complication of widely differing levels of economic development, “the physical manifestation of the city is reversed and, here, the ‘static’ or formal city is most often situated in the temporal landscape of the ‘kinetic’ or informal city” (Hernandez xi). Rocinha, Brazil, in the southern zone of Rio de Janeiro, is one example of an informal city. Another example is Dharavi, Mumbai, India, where there is a combined environmental and humanitarian crisis. Squatters’ rights are often how these situations of informal cites start. Then, as time passes, walls are added, then more. Property titles and rental agreements are often very rare in informal cities, so the social, legal, and economic levels are also informal in these situations. A third example of an informal city is Brasilia, the city inaugurated as Brazil’s capital in 1960. Brasilia was a planned city, but peripheral informal settlements around Brasilia that were unplanned have altered and subverted the original formal plans intended for and governing the layout of the city as a whole (Hernandez 54). “The development of informal architecture in Brasilia is not passive. It is deliberate and proactive. In this way, Brasilia must be acknowledged as a true representation of a Latin American condition” (Hernandez 66). In the Federal District, informal

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Informal Cities

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Bibliography Cruz, Teddy. “Rethinking Uneven Growth: It’s About Inequality, Stupid,” in Uneven Growth:

Tactical Urbanisms for Expanding Megacities (MoMA 2015): 48-55.

Harvey, David. A Brief History of Neoliberalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).

Hernandez, Felipe, Peter Kellett, and Lea K. Allen, eds. Rethinking the Informal City: Critical

Perspectives from Latin America (New York Berghahn Books, 2010): xi-xiv; 1-38; 53-69.

“Quinta Monroy / ELEMENTAL.” ArchDaily, 31 December 2008, www.archdaily.com/1-775/ quinta-monroy-elemental.

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architecture is only realized gradually, and in a piecemeal fashion, over the course of time, but there is still a sense of urgency in it. The architecture of these peripheral settlements, then, are in a constant state of transformation and flux. “[I]t signifies the performative time of the nation; that is, the continuous process of establishing its own hybrid identity” (Hernandez 66).

Neoliberalism plays a large role in the broader context in which informal cities have developed. Neoliberalism refers to an economic and political alliance, formed during the late 1970s, that advances businesses’ interests and capital accumulation with very little regard for social well-being. It is typically associated with policies of economic liberalization, such as deregulation and privatization. It is essentially about colonizing with money, and it often involves governance by executive action and judicial action. Huge inequalities in the distribution of wealth start to play out globally here.

Architecture can engage informal cities in several key ways. Architects can look to informal cities as examples of how to incorporate flexibility and creativity. “Adaptability, flexibility, resistance and several other aspects that would inform the broader discourse on urbanism in general are obvious pointers for design” (Hernandez xiv). The caution to take into account when asserting thing line of thinking, however, is that one must be wary of normalizing it, or making it seem more neutral than it is in reality. In truth, it is still not good to live in this way, as there are often dangerous conditions, including health concerns and increased threats of natural disasters, that one must acknowledge and take into account in these places. Keeping this in mind though, there are principles and approaches that can be learned from temporary cities and employed to good use in other situations in a more healthy and safe environment. “The kinetic city obviously cannot be seen as a design tool but rather a demand that conceptions of urbanism create and facilitate environments that are versatile and flexible, robust and ambiguous enough to allow this kinetic quality of the city to flourish. Perhaps the kinetic city might be the tactical approach to take when dealing with the urbanism of the temporary, or of high densities and intensities” (Hernandez xiii-xiv).

One example of an architectural project that does an excellent job taking cues and learning from informal cities is the Quinta Monroy housing project by the architecture firm Elemental, completed in Iquique, Chile, between 2003 and 2005. It’s an inspiring and hopeful project in many ways. In this social housing project funded by the Chilean government, housing was built for a hundred families on the same area of land that they had illegally occupied for the previous thirty years (“Quinta Monroy”). “[T]he aim was to settle the families in the same site, instead of displacing them to the periphery” (“Quinta Monroy”). Elemental shifted the usual narrative and wanted the housing to be seen as an investment rather than as an expense. In a very creative way, they designed the housing to be able to increase in value over time. Essentially, they left about half of each property unbuilt, as area that the occupants will be able to build out themselves. The initial building they built out for each unit therefore provided a supporting framework and was designed to facilitate the eventual expansion process (“Quinta Monroy”).

Informal cities have deserved the recent rethinking about them. In this essay, I examined their general characteristics, how and where they arose, and discussed how architecture can begin to engage them. “[T]he kinetic city presents a compelling vision that potentially allows us to understand more clearly the blurred lines of contemporary urbanism in Latin America, Asia or Africa and the changing roles of people and spaces in urban society” (Hernandez xii).

The inequalities present between social classes have been exacerbated by intensified global flows in these spatial contexts. “Here the idea of a city is an elastic urban condition, not a grand vision, but a ‘grand adjustment’” (Hernandez xii). There have been several architectural projects in recent years that have pointed to the potential to learn from the conditions of informal cities, and these begin to chart a hopeful path in a direction that may be productive and useful for the future.

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THEORIES OF FEMINIST ARCHITECTURE

Debates about the gendered nature of reality and feminist approaches to ethics have a long history. A wide variety of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century thinkers, including, but not limited to, Mary Wollstonecraft, John Stuart Mill, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton discussed topics related to what have been referred to broadly as “women’s morality.” In doing so, they sparked debate related to the different epistemologies that underpin these types of ethical perspectives. Naturally, the conversation has evolved and become increasingly nuanced and complex over time. The moral theory known as the “ethics of care” now occupies a central position within the fields of feminist theory and moral philosophy. The ethics of care is a moral theory that places a focus on human connection and interpersonal relationships of care. A main criticism espoused by opponents of the ethics of care assert that it is essentializing, but I argue that it is instead liberating. While I’m sensitive to the criticism that the ethics of care could be seen as essentialist, I think there may be convincing ways of getting around that, for instance, by considering care to be a gender-neutral activity and potentially by elucidating caring practices from a variety of perspectives and across a variety of levels. In comparing Joan Tronto’s “Beyond Gender Difference to a Theory of Care” and an excerpt from Carol Gilligan’s book In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development, I examine this issue.

In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development is an influential book in the field of gender studies written by Carol Gilligan, an American ethicist and psychologist. Carol Gilligan was one of the first to suggest that women and men think about ethics differently. Through her research, Gilligan observed that women will tend to try to solve an ethical dilemma presented to them in a way that attempts to prevent anyone from getting hurt (Gilligan, In a Different Voice). Most ethical theories from the Western tradition privilege a moral orientation centered on justice. A justice-centered moral orientation privileges universal principles and rules, rights, and obligations. A care orientation, on the other hand, is focused on relationships, needs, and particularity. “In Gilligan’s different voice, morality is not grounded in universal, abstract principles but in the daily experiences and moral problems of real people in their everyday lives” (Tronto, “Beyond Gender Difference” 648). The relational foundation of the ethics of care is crucial, and “it is tied to who one is, to what position one occupies in society” (Tronto, “Beyond Gender Difference” 654). Intuitively, it seems that an application of an ethics of care in practice more closely approaches how we would want to make our moral decisions, as opposed to relying solely on an ethics of justice. In reality, it seems instinctual that the preservation of our social relationships and the needs of others should indeed play an important role in our ethical decision-making.

Gilligan points to several traditional thinkers, including Sigmund Freud, who have considered women to be morally inferior to men, or less morally developed (Gilligan, In a Different Voice). In particular, she singles out educational psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg for a more extensive criticism. She believes that Kohlberg’s methodology is heavily malebiased and not adequately attuned to female moral voices. In her study of twenty-nine women reflecting on their decisions regarding whether or not to have an abortion, Gilligan notes that a distinctive moral voice, “a different voice,” comes from these women, speaking a language of care that emphasizes responsibilities and relationships. Gilligan does clarify in her argument that the languages of justice versus care are not correlated by gender in a fixed way, but the examples she uses throughout, including the abortion study example, actually seem to undermine this disclaimer in more cases than not (Gilligan, In a Different Voice).

The daily lived experiences of caring provide women with the adequate time needed to develop their moral sense, in one view. In contrast, “the dearth of caretaking experiences makes

privileged males morally deprived. Their experiences mislead them to think that moral beliefs can be expressed in abstract, universalistic terms as if they were purely cognitive questions, like mathematical formulae. This interpretation fits best with Lyons’s finding that women, more often than men, are capable of using both types of moral reasoning” (Tronto, “Beyond Gender Difference” 652). Notably, proponents of the ethics of care need not necessarily consider these ethics to be mutually exclusive. An ethics of care could, for instance, be complementary to an ethics of justice, and indeed, this is a position that some have taken. In my opinion, one of Gilligan’s most important observations was simply that many traditional moral theories and principles were deficient to the degree that they trivialized, demeaned, or even simply ignored values historically or culturally associated with women.

Gilligan’s work is susceptible to a variety of criticisms, but here I will focus in particular on the feminist critique that accuses her conception of an ethic of care of being essentializing.

“The equation of ‘care’ with ‘female’ is questionable because the evidence to support the link between gender difference and different moral perspectives is inadequate. It is a strategically dangerous position for feminists because the simple assertion of gender difference in a social context that identifies the male as normal contains an implication of the inferiority of the distinctly female. It is philosophically stultifying because, if feminists think of an ethic of care as categorized by gender difference, they are likely to become trapped trying to defend women’s morality rather than looking critically at the philosophical promises and problems of an ethic of care” (Tronto, “Beyond Gender Difference” 646). It’s thus mistaken to view the ethics of care as a “women’s morality.” “Whatever psychological dimensions there might be to explain women’s moral differences, there may also be a social cause: women’s different moral expression might be a function of their subordinate or tentative social position. Alternatively, the psychological causes may be intermediate causes, resting in turn on the social conditions of secondary status” (Tronto, “Beyond Gender Difference” 649). Approaching an ethics of care with this understanding, Tronto provides a strong response to the essentializing criticism.

Female differences that are observed may very well be contingent on social context rather than fixed. Tronto states succinctly that, “although an ethic of care could be an important intellectual concern for feminists, the debate around this concern should be centered not in discussions of gender difference but in discourse about the ethic’s adequacy as a moral theory” (Tronto, “Beyond Gender Difference” 646). In another paper, “Moral Orientation and Moral Development,” Gilligan proposed that each voice is associated with either a justicedominant or care-dominant moral orientation. She asserts that most people tend to default to either one or the other orientation, but that most people are capable of switching fluidly between the two (Gilligan, “Moral Orientation and Moral Development”). Gender need not determine each individual’s default mode, in this case.

Several theorists have attempted to respond to the critique of essentialism by exploring the concept of care as a gender-neutral activity. One such strictly gender-neutral theory of care has been developed by the theorist Michael Slote. He bases this on the grounds that the origins of ethics of care can be traced to the work of male philosophers as well as female ones (Slote). A second theory that uses a similar approach, one that is largely gender-neutral, has been laid out by Daniel Engster, endorsing a “minimally feminist theory of care” that defines care as satisfying needs that are more generally human (Engster).

It is crucial to more generally call into question some of the base assumptions of a “feminine ethics.” It is not fair to characterize women as being similar enough to all share a common perspective or to necessarily exhibit characteristically “feminine” traits such as empathy and nurturance. Women are a very diverse group, and there are certainly many men that exhibit equally strong, or stronger, tendencies to care. Further, there are women who do not express particular tendencies to care. It does not give us a complete picture of humanity to relegate care ethics to the sole purview of women or to consider it uniquely female or

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The Ethics of Care

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be interpreted as a misapplication of the ethics of care. The Tricycle Collective’s attempts had the internal intention of being motivated by caring, but I would argue that they were misapplying the concept. Care ethics can subsume under it what Baker proposes and calls a “politics of accountability.” She also, importantly, admits that “no moral framework can be perfectly practiced” (Baker 80-81).

While the essentialist critique of the ethics of care is worthy of note and may give us pause, especially in relation to some particular formulations or iterations of care ethics, such as Gilligan’s, these criticisms are certainly not strong enough to totally discredit the project of the ethics of care in general. It seems that care should remain a part (at least) of any credible theory of ethics. The ethics of care should not be rejected because of these criticisms; it should be refined because of them. If anything, the challenge of these criticisms should spur on ethicists to further develop a more robust ethics of care that includes men as well as women and that generally attempts to elucidate caring practices from a variety of perspectives and across a variety of levels. Tronto’s attempt to situate an ethics of care on the same playing field as rationalist ethics is an admirable one. According to her, we need to re-theorize everything from this perspective in order to make space for it. Otherwise, it will always be this extra, marginalized thing on the side, seen as secondary. For this to change, a total revolution of thought is required.

Bibliography Baker, Rachael. “Toward a Politics of Accountability: Feminist Ethics of Care and Whiteness

in Detroit’s Foreclosure Crisis.” Radical Housing Journal, Vol. 1, No. 1 (April 2019): 69-86.

Engster, Daniel. The Heart of Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Gilligan, Carol. In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development.

Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982.

Gilligan, Carol. “Moral Orientation and Moral Development.” Women and Moral Theory. Kittay

and Meyers (eds.) Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1987.

Hankivsky, Olena. “Rethinking Care Ethics: On the Promise and Potential of an Intersectional Analysis.” The American Political Science Review 108, no. 2 (2014): 252-64, http:// www.jstor.org/stable/43654371.

Hoagland, Sarah Lucia. “Some Thoughts about Caring.” Feminist Ethics. Claudia Card (ed.)

Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press, 1991.

Slote, Michael. “The Justice of Caring.” Virtues and Vices. Paul Miller (ed.) New York:

Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Tronto, Joan. “Beyond Gender Difference to a Theory of Care.” Signs, Vol. 12, No. 4, Within

and Without: Women, Gender, and Theory (Summer, 1987): 644-663.

Tronto, Joan. “Joan Tronto.” Interview by Ethics of Care website, August 4, 2009, https:// ethicsofcare.org/joan-tronto/.

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feminine. As noted by Tronto, other factors of social identity, such as ethnicity and class, have also been found to correlate with care thinking. One may alternatively argue, though, that caring remains a symbolically feminine trait or perspective. Perhaps, in this way, there is potential to respond to the essentialist critique of the ethics of care by asserting that care can be understood or construed as the symbolic voice of women rather than their actual voice.

Even if we accept the proposition that women are better at caring than men, it is likely still imprudent—ethically and politically—to associate women so closely and exclusively with the value of care. It seems that one is led in a problematic direction if one tries to associate women with care in this way. This line of reasoning has the potential to lead to undesirable outcomes, such as perhaps promoting the view that caring is exclusively within the domain of women and is only women’s responsibility. Or, taking it one step further, potentially this could encourage the view that because women are so capable of caring, they should care for others regardless of the potential cost to themselves. This is obviously not a conclusion we want to be led to. We must also be careful not to overly romanticize motherhood.

One should aim to be self-reflective and mindful of the ways in which the activity of moral theorizing is influenced by perspective and privilege. It is also important to consider the fact that women and men are implicated differently in chains of care, in particular when it comes to including further variables such as race, class, culture, age, and other considerations. One must also consider the political implications in regard to social justice. For instance, women of color in the United States make up a disproportionately large percentage of the category of care workers who are paid the lowest wages. Therefore, women of color and white women are differently situated in terms of who is more likely to be a caregiver versus a care-receiver in certain contexts. Further, critics contend that the ethics of care does not adequately represent the vast breadth and variety of experiences of different individuals (Hoagland).

Several other writers have elucidated similar criticisms. For example, in “Rethinking Care Ethics: On the Promise and Potential of an Intersectional Analysis,” Olena Hankivsky explores “intersectionality as an important theoretical resource to further develop and advance care ethics. Using intersectionality as a critical reference point, the investigation highlights two key shortcomings of care ethics which stem from this ethics’ prioritization of gender and gendered power relations: inadequate conceptualizations of diversity and power” (Hankivsky 252). Tronto echoed similar sentiments in a 2009 interview, stating that she thinks “an ethics of care needs to understand itself locally as well as globally, from the standpoint of the most vulnerable and most privileged receivers of care” (Tronto, “Joan Tronto”).

All of this is to say that any theory that is developed around the ethics of care must necessarily be nuanced and complex enough in order to take into account these considerations.

It actually seems intuitive that a theory that is, at its core, relational and contextual, as both Gilligan and Tronto intend for it to be, will not always yield black-and-white answers and will not always have a simple, straightforward process to arrive at solutions. Therefore, just because it is not always cleanly applied to reality, it does not necessarily follow that we should reject it as an ethical theory.

Closely related to the question of whether the ethics of care is liberating or essentializing, it is also instructive to take a deeper look at whether or not it is truly useful, and, relatedly, to whom is it useful. Arguably, it is most liberating if it has practical and useful applications that will positively benefit individuals and communities. Also central to this question is a consideration of who is implementing the ethics of care. In “Toward a Politics of Accountability: Feminist Ethics of Care and Whiteness in Detroit’s Foreclosure Crisis,” Rachael Baker lays out a potentially devastating critique of the ethics of care as used in practice in the context of the efforts of the Tricycle Collective, a nonprofit organization led by women in Detroit that helped households avoid tax foreclosure (Baker 69). However, what she describes could actually

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Jamie Vinikoor | jlm2302@columbia.edu | Selected Works