The ethics of hospitality, gift and care have gained much currency over the last few years on both sides of the Atlantic. They seek, each in their own way, to reflect on some of the most pressing contemporary ethico-political issues (e.g. the refugee crisis, unremunerated labor in a market economy, precarity, invisibilized care work). The three ethics draw from different disciplinary and theoretical sources.

The ethics of hospitality were strongly influenced by the philosophical work of Emmanuel Lévinas and Jacques Derrida; the principal source for the ethics of the gift is the anthropological analysis of Marcel Mauss; and the ethics of care have been developed in the wake of American psychologist Carol Gilligan’s work. Despite these different underpinnings, the three ethics nonetheless share several concerns and principles, notably the notion that any theory of the social and the political should be anchored in a relational ontology and in an anthropology of vulnerability. As such, it is surprising to observe that few researchers have explored the affinities between these three paradigms (with the notable exceptions of Elena Pulcini, Philipe Chanial and Jacques Godbout).

The main objective of the volume is to address this scholarly gap and to initiate a more explicit interdisciplinary dialogue - in French - between these three ethical paradigms. Another goal is to consider the currency of each of these ethics for reflecting on important contemporary issues.

Published in French.

Contributions by: Ivy Lynn Bourgeault, Fabienne Brugère, Merridee Bujaki, Dominique Hétu, Alain Loute, Isabelle Marchand, Elena Pulcini, Marie-Andrée Ricard, Patrick Schuchter, Joan Stavo-Debauge, Stéphane Vibert, Luc Vigneault