The Sustainability of Life and the Ethics of Care: Analysis and Proposals for Imagining the Intervention of Social Programmes in Chile

Abstract

Although social programme interventions in Chile have included the notion of care in their formulation, they have not addressed the neoliberal and patriarchal logic that underlies them. Recovering the link between care, precariousness, vulnerability and interdependence from the sustainability of life approach, in this article we analyse the findings of a qualitative study that consisted of 26 semi-structured interviews with female social workers implementing a mental health programme in Chile. We explored the construction of the professional position of these women and the resistances in terms of co-care that they develop to sustain life while implementing the programme in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Based on the findings, we propose to re-organise the intervention of social programmes in terms of care and to reconsider the ways in which we construct local articulations to put the sustainability of life and the dignity of people at the centre.