Experts from six countries have expressed their opinions and ideas with regard to caring for dependent persons from diverse academic and professional disciplines in the book Care Professions and Globalization. Theoretical and Practical Perspectives (Palgrave Macmillan). This book has been edited by Ana Marta González, scientific coordinator of Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) of the Universidad de Navarra and principal researcher of the project ‘Emotional Culture and Identity' (CEMID) –financed by Seguros Zurich- and Craig Iffland, of the University of Notre Dame (USA).

This work is the fruit of an experts meeting which professor González directed under the same title in 2009 at the Social Trends Institute. 

This work not only considers the citizen as an academic question –which has acquired significance in the philosophical environment from the feminist criticism to modern moral theory, and in the sociological environment, from the fusion of sociology of the family and sociology or work praised by Arlie Hochschild-, but also as a developing profession with its own challenges.

In this sense, in addition to examining the philosophical and sociological aspects, the book explores the different ways in which this type of attention unfolds into practical contexts for the purpose of shedding light on the problems that arise from his professionalization and on the policies that can promote the service of giving good care to persons who need it.

Eleven works: theoretical and practical perspective

The book contains a collection of eleven works. The first five, which address a theoretical perspective, are as follows: The Completion of Care - With Implications for a Duty to Receive Care Graciously, by Eva Feder Kittay, from Stony Brook University (EE. UU.), author of numerous articles on topics such as feminist ethics; Carefree in Barcelona, by David H. Smith, from Yale University (EE. UU.); 'Moved by the Suffering of Others': Using Aristotelian Theory to Think about Care, by Kim Redgrave, from London Metropolitan University (United Kingdom); Social Contract Theory and Moral Agency: Understanding the Roots of an Uncaring Society, by Melissa Moschella, from James Madison Program for American Ideals and Institutions from Princeton University (USA); and Emotional Work and Care as Relationship: some Particularities and Consequences, by Alejandro N. García, ICS researcher from the Universidad de Navarra.

The following chapters focus on a practical perspective: Socio-Economic Impact of the Work of the Home, by M. Sophia Aguirre, from The Catholic University of America (USA); Working in the ICU: A Study on the Normalization of Tension in Health Care Provision, by Ambrogia Cereda,  former member of CEMID and presently a member of the Fashion Institute of Technology Milan and collaborator of the Centro ModaCult de la Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Italy); Professionalizing Care - a Necessary Irony? Some Implications of the 'Ethics of Care' for the Caring Professions and Informal Caring, by Richard Hugman, from the University of New South Wales (Australia); Domestic Work: Judgments and Biases Regarding Mundane Tasks, by María Pía Chirinos, professor at the Universidad de Piura (Peru); The Moral Sense of Nursing Care, by Mercedes Pérez, from the School of Nursing at the Universidad de Navarra; and A Professional Perspective on End of Life Care, by Carlos Centeno, principal researcher for the ICS program ATLANTES of the Universidad de Navarra.