The Times of Caring Democracy: Feminist Chronopolitics and the Temporalities of Care

Abstract

This article explores a feminist chronopolitics of care through tracing the (missing) links between care, time and democracy. In democratic and care theories, temporalities have mostly been theorized regarding duration and speed. To extend this limited understanding of democratic and caring temporalities, the article draws on feminist theories of time to theorize the temporalities of care. Drawing on the concept of caring democracy, which centers dependencies and caring relationships, the article expands its limited temporal understanding. The emphasis on the temporalities of care challenges hegemonic temporal regimes based on linear clock-time in capitalist societies. Instead, it proposes reflecting on the multiple temporalities of care and integrating them into democratic processes. This might allow for a move toward a gender- and time-just caring democracy through what I propose to call feminist chronopolitics.