“From Autonomy To Relationality: A Care Ethics Perspective On Global Justice”

Abstract

In an era marked by ecological fragility, humanitarian crises, and widening global inequalities, dominant theories of justice—rooted in autonomy, impartiality, and universal reason—prove increasingly inadequate. These frameworks often overlook the emotional, relational, and embodied dimensions of moral life, particularly in contexts of caregiving, migration, and structural vulnerability. Feminist theorists such as Carol Gilligan, Virginia Held, and Joan Tronto have advanced the ethics of care as a critical response to this moral abstraction. This paper explores how care ethics reorients global justice by foregrounding dependency, responsiveness, and moral proximity. Through case studies including vaccine apartheid, global care chains, and refugee policy, it demonstrates the ethical insufficiency of justice without care. Rather than discarding justice, the care perspective deepens it— transforming foreign policy, institutional ethics, and global governance. The study ultimately proposes care ethics as an urgent philosophical and political corrective to the moral blind spots of the liberal order.