A Study on Public Ethics of Care:

Care, Justice and Economics of Social Service

Purpose - This paper explores a new possibility of care ethics for social service. As the needs for care have been growing rapidly in various social fields, ‘care’ became an important concept in envisioning a welfare state. However, due to the lack of proper ethics and political stance applied to the newly arisen needs and challenges, there exist lots of confusions and difficulties. Research design, data, and methodology - Introducing the feminist ethics of care, this paper examines the relationship of care and justice in social service. As a main research perspective, this study has focused on Kittay’s public ethics of care and Tronto’s political ethics of care. Results - Drawing on the main research perspective, this study discusses on the necessity of a political conceptualization for an integrative care ethics. In the process, The specialty and professionality of care work as a relational labor was reconsidered. Kittay’s care ethics provides a persuasive justification for social support for care workers as well as care receivers, and Tronto’s ethics shows us the role of care politics for democratic citizenship. Conclusions - Tronto’s ethics of care with Kittay’s gives us valuable insights to envision a new public ethics for social service that takes into account both care and justice properly.