Can care help conceptualise place futures? Exploring the potential of care as an analytical framework for understanding place qualities

Abstract

This paper explores how the concept of care can structure an analytical framework for understanding place qualities. Care is burgeoning as a major concept within the humanities and social sciences. Given its growing application in planning, it is timely to reflect on what the care concept contributes to understanding places and their possible futures. Following a review of the scholarly literature, this paper proposes an analytical framework based around five characteristics of care: (1) objects of care; (2) caring actors; (3) care practices, (4) care motivations; (5) care relations. The final part of the paper reflects on the potential of the care concept for imagining possible place futures. Keywords: Care, place, futures, analytical framework