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This is a Literature Review study.

September 10, 2025Open Access

Nishida, A. (2022). Just Care: Messy Entanglements of Disability, Dependence, and Desire. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Review by Kaat Kenis

Key Points

Nishida reveals how care practices are intertwined with themes of disability and dependence, influencing societal norms.
The author highlights that neoliberal policies commodify care, reinforcing racialized and ableist structures.
She explores the dual role of care as both a site of exploitation and a space for resistance against oppression.
Nishida emphasizes that independence is often idealized, while dependence is misrepresented as a personal failure.

Abstract

In Just Care: Messy Entanglements of Disability, Dependency, and Desire, Akemi Nishida offers a critical and deeply personal examination of care as a political, economic, and relational practice. She challenges the dominant narratives that idealise independence and frame dependency as a personal failure. By centering the lived experiences of those engaged in daily care work, she reveals how neoliberal policies commodify care and reinforce racialized, gendered, and ableist structures of oppression. Nishida unpacks the entangled relationships between care workers and care recipients, showing how the very systems designed to support them often result in mutual debilitation. At the same time, she argues that care is not just a site of exploitation – it can also be a powerful space for resistance.

Nishida, A. (2022). Just Care: Messy Entanglements of Disability, Dependence, and Desire. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Review by Kaat Kenis

Key Points

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