The Caring University: Making the Case for Students' Agency and Capabilities
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| Title: | The Caring University: Making the Case for Students' Agency and Capabilities |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Authors: | Mette Hjort (ORCID |
| Source: | Educational Philosophy and Theory. 2025 57(3):222-234. |
| Availability: | Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Page Count: | 13 |
| Publication Date: | 2025 |
| Document Type: | Journal Articles Reports - Evaluative |
| Education Level: | Higher Education Postsecondary Education |
| Descriptors: | Caring, Universities, College Students, Mental Health, Personal Autonomy, Academic Ability, World Problems, Well Being, Institutional Characteristics, Differences, Knowledge Level, Tutors, Staff Role, Daily Living Skills, Foreign Countries, Case Studies, Community Involvement |
| Geographic Terms: | United Kingdom (England) |
| DOI: | 10.1080/00131857.2024.2436085 |
| ISSN: | 0013-1857 1469-5812 |
| Abstract: | While concepts of care and caring have a long history, the terms have become especially prominent in recent times. Care and caring, I argue, have emerged as what philosopher Charles Taylor calls 'moral sources,' uber-concepts that allow for moral deliberation, the prioritization of preferences, and our identity formation as persons. Linking the current salience of care to a growing awareness of the dynamics of a crisis- and catastrophe-ridden world, I consider care within the context of university students' declining mental health. Acknowledging role differentiation within universities and the contributions of Well-being units with specialist knowledge, I contend that frontline tutors without such knowledge have an important role to play in developing alternatives to an increasingly pervasive medicalised conception of care, one that constitutes students as passive patients. Drawing on Martha Nussbaum and Amartya Zen's capabilities approach to human flourishing, I suggest that there is considerable scope, within the civil society environments of the university sector, for life skills-oriented practices of care that are profoundly agential, and, through this, curative, protective, and liberating. I illustrate the relevance of the theoretical propositions through a case study of a collaborative performance of the 'Shout at Cancer Choir' (aka 'Laryngectomy Choir') at the University of Lincoln, UK, in 2023. The aim is to show how particular forms of community engagement, within or beyond the formal curriculum, create capabilities-based conditions for students' flourishing. |
| Abstractor: | As Provided |
| Entry Date: | 2025 |
| Accession Number: | EJ1467800 |
| Database: | ERIC |
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| FullText | Links: – Type: pdflink Url: https://content.ebscohost.com/cds/retrieve?content=AQICAHj0k_4E0hTGH8RJwT4gCJyBsGNe_WN95AvKlDbXJGqwxwGzqCsXVeOzeVUTMbojDH_kAAAA4zCB4AYJKoZIhvcNAQcGoIHSMIHPAgEAMIHJBgkqhkiG9w0BBwEwHgYJYIZIAWUDBAEuMBEEDEFFlv3Fzkg17p9xlAIBEICBm_TkyNHIc5l5kaVyDqm2B4E4GtrVfYHpu8yuZSkffTQCaO-9VStVwM99Hvjtdek6WiuQW0UxSov5osqZ_gDSd416M9Kx5a3ztRiGoq9yKtCfaj0VyOfScyvOhzyucXtrlxvtuOQQXT5o-zmd9KmizuLBxpKsqYIJkTGpbuptFR6g_yqZlYaguX6xp3E71k_BWtHv6goTjZc4r0Q9 Text: Availability: 1 Value: <anid>AN0183127587;54l01mar.25;2025Feb21.01:53;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0183127587-1">The caring university: Making the case for students' agency and capabilities </title> <p>While concepts of care and caring have a long history, the terms have become especially prominent in recent times. Care and caring, I argue, have emerged as what philosopher Charles Taylor calls 'moral sources,' uber-concepts that allow for moral deliberation, the prioritization of preferences, and our identity formation as persons. Linking the current salience of care to a growing awareness of the dynamics of a crisis- and catastrophe-ridden world, I consider care within the context of university students' declining mental health. Acknowledging role differentiation within universities and the contributions of Well-being units with specialist knowledge, I contend that frontline tutors without such knowledge have an important role to play in developing alternatives to an increasingly pervasive medicalised conception of care, one that constitutes students as passive patients. Drawing on Martha Nussbaum and Amartya Zen's capabilities approach to human flourishing, I suggest that there is considerable scope, within the civil society environments of the university sector, for life skills-oriented practices of care that are profoundly agential, and, through this, curative, protective, and liberating. I illustrate the relevance of the theoretical propositions through a case study of a collaborative performance of the 'Shout at Cancer Choir' (aka 'Laryngectomy Choir') at the University of Lincoln, UK, in 2023. The aim is to show how particular forms of community engagement, within or beyond the formal curriculum, create capabilities-based conditions for students' flourishing.</p> <p>Keywords: Care; mental health crisis; university sector; capabilities; medicalisation; agency</p> <hd id="AN0183127587-2">Care and caring: Remarks on history and culture</hd> <p>The terms 'care' and 'caring' are at this point ubiquitous, not only in the domain of everyday life, but also in scholarly writings, government policies, and even the brand development of companies that seek to increase their market shares. <emph>The Care Manifesto</emph> by the Care Collective ([<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref1">1</reflink>]) is an especially noteworthy and, indeed, influential example of a socially engaged theorization of care, one finely attuned to the crises and catastrophes of our times. We must acknowledge, however, that concepts and practices of care are not an entirely new invention; equally, we must recognise that while 'care' and 'caring' are terms in the English language, related practices can be found in cultures outside the anglophone West. If we look back in history, we discover that in seventeenth century France priests assumed the role of spiritual advisors or guides, serving as so-called '<emph>directeurs de conscience</emph>' or guardians of the soul. As such they were expected to tend, with care, to the moral and spiritual needs of specific individuals. In Molière's <emph>Tartuffe</emph>, we famously witness the perversion of the role through the strategic deployment of its intimacies, hierarchies, and authority for purely venal, parasitic gains.</p> <p>In his later philosophical writings, most notably <emph>The Care of the Self</emph> (Foucault, [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref2">7</reflink>]), influential French philosopher Michel Foucault sought to engage us with the wisdom of classical antiquity, with the idea that self-care is a core component of an ethical life. Whereas Foucault's earlier work on the history of sexuality had focused on biopower, on techniques devised for the purposes of subjugating bodies and controlling populations, <emph>The Care of the Self</emph> explored self-making through such practices as meditation and self-writing, activities that we freely engage in as we seek, through our body, mind, and soul, to live an ethical life.[<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref3">1</reflink>] Looking beyond the West, to Japan, we discover that care has long been a defining feature of distinctive practices such as <emph>kintsugi</emph>, a technique involving the loving, caring restoration of cracked, damaged, and typically well-worn ceramic or porcelain artefacts. Tellingly, the jacket cover of Yuriko Saito's groundbreaking <emph>Aesthetics of Care: Practice in Everyday Life</emph> (Saito, [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref4">16</reflink>]) captures the centrality of kintsugi to Japanese conceptions of care, through a striking photograph of a dark ceramic bowl restored with gold. A means of extending the life of cherished objects bearing the dramatic marks of regular use or breakage, kintsugi is a moving counterpoint to the care-less wastefulness of cultures of conspicuous consumption or planned obsolescence, where purposefully frail designs oil the ultimately unsustainable machinery of profit-driven extractivism.</p> <p>Care and caring, it is clear, are not new phenomena, nor are they exclusive to the anglophone West. That said, care and caring are now being embraced as what Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor ([<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref5">21</reflink>]) would describe as a moral source, a prioritised uber-concept allowing us to orient ourselves within a moral space, to decide what matters to us, to arrive at an understanding of our values and priorities, and to articulate to ourselves and others what we are about as persons, as moral agents. An important factor here is the extent to which our immediate environments or mediated horizons of collective awareness are increasingly shaped by apparently unstoppable catastrophes and crises, by the ever-impinging effects of cultures of neglect or carelessness. Care and caring have a firm grip on our imagination because they appear to invite the kind of far-reaching changes that a crisis- and catastrophe-prone world urgently needs. In <emph>How to Think about Catastrophe: Toward a Theory of Enlightened Doomsaying</emph>, Jean-Pierre Dupuy ([<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref6">6</reflink>]) explores the ramifications of humanity's acquisition, over the course of the last century, of the ability to destroy itself, through direct and indirect means (examples include nuclear war and anthropogenic climate change respectively). A growing awareness of the extent to which our lives exist in the shadows of apparently accelerating crises and looming catastrophes creates an urgent need for explanations and solutions. While it can be argued that the attunement to crisis is a media phenomenon to some extent, the fact remains that to human minds overwhelmed by the enormity and complexity of actual, probable, and possible disasters, terms like 'carelessness' and 'care' serve an important clarifying, motivating, and guiding function.</p> <hd id="AN0183127587-3">Young minds and mental health</hd> <p>An example of the link between crisis and the contemporary turn to care is the mental health crisis being endured by adolescents and young adults, and the efforts being taken within the tertiary sector of university education to respond appropriately, with the right forms of care and caring. As an educator charged with running the School of Film, Media and Journalism at the University of Lincoln in the UK from 2022-2024, this is a crisis that informed my decisions and actions on a daily basis. Indeed, on September 25, 2023, University of Lincoln Vice-Chancellor Neal Juster wrote to all members of staff to highlight the 'increasing challenge' represented by students' poor mental health and to share guidance from a Universities UK briefing entitled 'Additional statutory duty of care for students in Higher Education' (April 2023). Citing Universities UK, Juster's message captures the proposed approach: 'In the face of this significant challenge, UUK supports our members to create safe, inclusive, and healthy settings for students. This means promoting awareness and disclosure, emphasising the importance of open conversations and co-production, and taking action on prevention and early intervention. It also means providing appropriate support and clear pathways into and out of NHS care' (Juster, email to all University of Lincoln staff, September 23, 2023). Vice-Chancellors in the UK are well aware of a number of recent tragic events, and these are an important part of the context for the call for heightened awareness. For example, a high court judge's ruling against the University of Bristol in the case of the suicide of a disabled undergraduate on the day of an oral exam that she saw as 'truly terrifying' is widely regarded as having implications for the entire university sector (Morris, [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref7">11</reflink>]).</p> <p>YoungMinds, the UK's leading charity devoted to the mental health of children and young people, provides alarming statistics consistent with the experiences of university educators across the UK. The statistics indicate that the mental health crisis affecting younger generations is becoming more, not less severe. Whereas 1 in 9 children aged 5 to 16 were seen as having a mental health problem in 2017, the numbers in 2021 were 1 in 6. Strikingly, given the Care Collective's understanding of how the Covid-19 pandemic motivated a convergence on ideas of care and caring, YoungMinds ([<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref8">23</reflink>]) reports that '83% of young people with mental health needs agreed that the coronavirus pandemic had made their mental health worse.'[<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref9">2</reflink>] With respect to this mental health crisis, a realist position is appropriate, for while increasing rates of diagnosis may be a factor, causes of increased rates of depression are not difficult to identify. Factors often assumed to be impacting the mental health of children and young people in the UK include inflation and the so-called cost of living crisis, the sense of loss associated with the outcomes of a Brexit referendum from which young people were excluded due to age, the prospect of sizeable student debts that many will be unable to repay, the growing instability of university programmes due to the precarious circumstances of a significant percentage of the university sector, the absence of rent control, and growing barriers to entry on multiple fronts (students are, for example, well aware of the extent to which unpaid internships provide access to various industries, but only for those whose parents are willing and able to fund the arrangement).</p> <p>The response to the growing evidence of the extent to which young adults are struggling with mental health challenges has been to strengthen and foreground care in the institutional fabric of university life in the UK. Colleagues at the University of Lincoln are required to undergo mandatory training (for example, in Safeguarding Adults and Children at Risk, and in Mental Health Support for Students), while students are to be regularly polled on how well or poorly they are doing. Colleagues are all expected to be well aware of the services provided by the Well-being team. Unlike academics, this team is charged with providing clear pathways into and out of NHS care. Although a whole-university approach has been advocated by such organisations as Student Minds (Student Minds, n.d.),[<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref10">3</reflink>] the reality is that caring aimed at mental health is often seen as a task for the Well-being team, and not for the university community more generally. Mental health is interpreted in a limited way, as a positive that will be restored once a long list of possible symptoms of ill health are eliminated, the duty of transformation being principally the responsibility of counsellors in the Well-being team. Indeed, academic tutors rightly point out that they lack the specialist skillsets to effect what is essentially a curative process, one requiring counselling and, in many cases, medication.</p> <p>But is this narrow, medicalised conception of care sufficient if we aim to develop genuinely caring universities? Well-being teams are needed and referrals will be necessary in many cases. Yet, if we adopt a much broader understanding of care and caring, one aimed at creating the conditions for human flourishing, then preventative measures taken to ensure that students have the <emph>abilities</emph> needed to thrive become central. These preventative efforts, which are often about outlook, models, and life skills, must be within the purview not of specialised Well-being teams, but of the frontline tutors who design and deliver the curriculum, and of those who support and shape the activities that occur in the <emph>co-curricular</emph> or <emph>extra-curricular</emph> spaces of university life. The case being made is thus for an approach that acknowledges that many of the skills and attitudes that are protective of mental health and conducive to human flourishing are best acquired <emph>before</emph> students find themselves in the patient role (with failing mental health), <emph>before</emph> they are advised to access the specialist services of Well-being teams and, through them, the treatments provided by doctors.</p> <p>As the then head of a school that provided an academic home to around 200 new students each year (the School of Film, Media and Journalism at the University of Lincoln has since merged with the School of Creative Arts), I sought to understand what the decisive differences are between effective and ineffective forms of caring. As will become clear, the approach that I consider most promising is one that emphasizes agency over passivity, one that activates the self rather than constituting the self as a largely passive recipient of care. The significance of agency, I believe, is being overlooked in the West, where pharmaceutical interventions are often, for a variety of reasons, given priority. The neglect in question motivates the attempt in what follows to re-think care and caring in terms of human capabilities and positive freedoms, and this in the context of civil society (which is where universities in the UK and the West more generally typically sit).</p> <hd id="AN0183127587-4">Stemming the diffusion of medicalised conceptions of care</hd> <p>There is an urgent need, I believe, for agent-focused understandings of care, for conceptualisations and practices that emphasize our capabilities as persons and the freedoms they afford us. I use the word 'urgent' because the fact is that we increasingly live in a world that defines us as patients and thus, by definition, as passive receptors of care, not agents who are collectively and individually, by virtue of inherent, acquired, and culturally supported capabilities, involved in caring practices aimed at human flourishing. Let me explain. As I see it, ours is a world where powerful corporations that are in the supremely lucrative business of providing pharmaceutical solutions to illness have much at stake in medicalising care and caring, in constituting citizens as patients belonging within the scope of their specialized authority and expertise. At times referred to under the umbrella term of 'Big Pharma,' these corporations regularly engage in highly unethical business practices ranging from the failure to disclose the full results of medical trials, manipulation of regulatory bodies, pressuring members of the medical profession selectively to prescribe and to overprescribe drugs, and cruel marginalisation of patient communities suffering from horrific iatrogenic diseases, illnesses, that is, that are caused by prescription medicine. Countless examples could be given here, but the interested reader need only refer to the history of the Merck-produced drug Finasteride (aka Propecia), and to the human costs associated with this product due to the serious side effects known as Post Finasteride Syndrome, to gain an understanding of the issues (see the PFS Network [PFSN [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref11">14</reflink>]] for research articles, press coverage, and patient testimonials).</p> <p>The perverse effects of a profit-driven pharmaceutical sector, especially in the United States, are increasingly being reflected in films (both fiction and documentary) and TV series. A much admired example is the documentary film <emph>All the Beauty and the Bloodshed</emph> (2022, directed by Laura Poitras), which documents acclaimed photographer Nan Goldin's fight against the Sackler family, producers of the drug OxyContin. The Netflix series <emph>Painkiller</emph> (2023, directed by Peter Berg) about the opioid crisis caused by the unethical, profit-driven development of the drug OxyContin by the Sackler family, is also a searing indictment of a host of ills associated with Big Pharma, not least the colonisation of care by an inadequately regulated corporate sector. The Sackler family, it is now well established, relied on ruthless marketing strategies—the co-opting of doctors through the deployment of an army of attractive young drug pushers and hefty speakers' fees for drug-pushing doctors—that 'generated billions of dollars' and 'millions of addicts' (Keefe, [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref12">10</reflink>]). The Sackler family's knowing disregard for the highly addictive quality of OxyContin caused widespread death and destroyed families and communities. The picture of devastation that we now associate with OxyContin is clearly antithetical to the caring outcomes promised by the proponents of pharmaceutical interventions.</p> <p>Credible research by established researchers increasingly questions the extent to which the pharmaceutical industry merits description as a sector devoted to caring outcomes such as health and human flourishing. In some instances, companies are actively 'sponsor[ing] diseases and promot[ing] them to prescribers and consumers,' a practice described as 'disease mongering' (Moynihan et al., [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref13">12</reflink>]). In some instances disease awareness campaigns serve as carefully crafted strategies aimed at expanding markets for new pharmaceutical products, even as 'alternative approaches' are 'played down or ignored.' Such alternative approaches may include 'personal coping strategies' or even awareness of the 'self-limiting or relatively benign natural history of a problem.'[<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref14">4</reflink>]</p> <p>A medicalised conception of care has its place in society, the challenge associated with the current situation having to do with the practices of the sector, which includes bad actors, and with how the scope of the relevant approach is ever-expanding, with serious consequences for alternative conceptions and for how we see ourselves as persons. In the context of considerations of the legitimate scope of a medicalised conception of care, institutions like universities offer an especially interesting institutional environment. Their principal purpose is not to deliver medicalised care, and yet many of the young people entrusted to the care of institutions in the tertiary sector are already on medication on arrival or likely to be referred to Well-being services and, through them, to doctors and psychiatrists during their studies. The question, then, is this: How can universities, as institutions outside the specialised domain of medicalised care, contribute to a more balanced approach? The answer, I contend, is that universities must offer an institutional environment that is systemically and systematically devoted to nurturing capabilities, and, through this, identities shaped by the possibility of taking action, by the desirability of being active agents, not passive patients. Success with this <emph>general</emph>, encompassing undertaking may offer <emph>specific</emph> students who are already struggling the resources they need to begin to thrive; equally, however, the creation of a certain kind of institutional environment may also serve a preventative function, making it less likely that specific students will end up struggling with a variety of psychological and physical conditions.</p> <hd id="AN0183127587-5">Agency: Capabilities and freedoms</hd> <p>In partnership with the Nobel Prize-winning Indian economist Amartya Sen, American philosopher Martha Nussbaum ([<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref15">13</reflink>]) has developed an influential capabilities-based approach to human flourishing. Oft cited in the worlds of policy studies and development work, the capabilities approach has a critically important contribution to make to the practical philosophy of care. Informed by influential thinkers as ancient as Socrates and Aristotle, Nussbaum's <emph>Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach</emph> (2011) defines the role of government as follows: to 'secure to all citizens at least a threshold level of [...] ten Central Capabilities' (Nussbaum, [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref16">13</reflink>], 33). Identifying the institutional underpinnings of the capabilities approach, Nussbaum acknowledges the part played by civil society, or the third sector, by institutions, that is, that may be supported by, but are not directly controlled by government, having therefore a degree of institutional autonomy. 'Civil society,' as Charles Taylor reminds us, 'exists over against the state, in partial independence from it' (Taylor, [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref17">20</reflink>], 95)</p> <p>Foremost amongst the relevant institutions of civil society, when considering capabilities, are those devoted to education, both formal and informal:</p> <p>At the heart of the Capabilities Approach since its inception has been the importance of education. Education (in schools, in the family, in programs for both child and adult development run by nongovernmental organizations) forms people's existing capacities into developed <emph>internal capabilities</emph> of many kinds. This formation is valuable in itself and a source of lifelong satisfaction. It is also pivotal to the development and exercise of many other human capabilities: a 'fertile functioning' of the highest importance in addressing disadvantage and inequality (Nussbaum, [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref18">13</reflink>], 152).</p> <p>Following Nussbaum, these internal capabilities are not to be regarded as 'innate equipment' (2011, 23). Human beings are equipped, in the absence of disability, with certain capacities—the capacity to learn to speak, for example—but certain conditions need to exist if these innate capacities are to be developed fully into capabilities. The concept of capabilities speaks to key questions that are fundamental to the very concept of human agency, or what it means to be a person: 'What are people actually able to do and be? What real opportunities are available to them?' (Nussbaum, [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref19">13</reflink>], x) Doing and being here are not reducible to currently prominent ideas of employability, to concerns about whether education offers an immediately obvious, direct bridge to the world of work, through the highly focused, specialised development of specific employability-oriented skills. Doing and being, rather, are much more far-reaching, encompassing concepts, for they have to do with the capacity for expansive self-definition and, through this, with world-making, with, quite fundamentally, human freedom. As Nussbaum puts it, 'To promote capabilities is to promote areas of freedom' (2011, 25). Revealing her commitment to social welfare state models as compared with the small state alternative that is especially influential in neo-liberal environments, Nussbaum describes the idea of 'negative liberty' as 'incoherent.' 'All liberties,' she says, 'are positive, meaning liberties to do or to be something [and] all require the inhibition of interference by others' (2011, 65).</p> <p>Let us look briefly, then, at Nussbaum's 'central capabilities,' offering full or abbreviated descriptions only in those cases where universities come into the picture, qua institutions situated in civil society:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> <emph>Life</emph> [...].</item> <p></p> <item> <emph>Bodily health</emph> [...]</item> <p></p> <item> <emph>Bodily integrity</emph> [...]</item> <p></p> <item> <emph>Senses, imagination, and thought</emph>. Being able to use the senses, to imagine, think, and reason – and to do these things in a 'truly human' way, a way informed and cultivated by an adequate education [...]. Being able to have pleasurable experiences and to avoid nonbeneficial pain.</item> <p></p> <item> <emph>Emotions</emph>. Being able to have attachments to things and people outside ourselves [...]</item> <p></p> <item> <emph>Practical reason</emph>. Being able to form a conception of the good and to engage in critical reflection about the planning of one's life [...].</item> <p></p> <item> <emph>Affiliation</emph>. (a) being able to live with and toward others, to recognize and show concern for other human beings, to engage in various forms of social interaction; to be able to imagine the situation of another [...] (b) Having the social bases of self-respect and nonhumiliation; being able to be treated as a dignified being whose worth is equal to that of others [...].</item> <p></p> <item> <emph>Other species</emph>. Being able to live with concern for and in relation to animals, plants, and the world of nature.</item> <p></p> <item> <emph>Play</emph>. Being able to laugh, to play, to enjoy recreational activities.</item> <p></p> <item> <emph>Control over one's environment</emph> (2011, 33-34)</item> </ulist> <p>Let us adopt the noncynical view that the point of education is to contribute to human flourishing (and not, as some would have it, to produce the cogs that the machines of capitalist exploitation require). To be a caring educational institution is not merely to ensure that students suffering from mental ill health are quickly and efficiently referred to well-staffed Well-being units. Rather, care is about creating the institutional affordances for the development of capabilities, capabilities that will allow the next generation to lead lives that are rich, meaningful, and full of purpose. These lives will themselves be expressions of caring attitudes when they are fueled by a desire and ability to make a positive contribution to a wider world that exists beyond the realm of narrow self-interest. Care, as practiced by educational institutions such as universities is arguably about harnessing some of the wisdom of liberal arts traditions, where education of the 'whole person' is given distinctive weight.</p> <p>It is worth noting that liberal arts traditions are closely entwined with ideas of human flourishing, a point that is beautifully expressed in the title of President Emeritus of the Great Lakes Colleges Association Richard A. Detweiler's empirically grounded study, <emph>The Evidence Liberal Arts Needs: Lives of Consequence, Inquiry, and Accomplishment</emph> (2021). Liberal arts institutions, we know, have faced challenges in the United States in recent times, yet the ideas that are central to the relevant traditions rightly continue to command interest and support on a global basis. This is evident in the efforts of the Global Liberal Arts Alliance (the liberal arts university of Hong Kong, Lingnan University, joined GLAA when I was the university's Associate Vice President [Internationalisation and Academic Quality Assurance]). Founded by Detweiler the GLAA is a coalition of 30 universities from 16 countries, including Pakistan, Morocco, India, and Saudi Arabia. Whereas US-based critics often construe liberal arts models as insufficiently attuned to the expectations of specific sectors of the employment market, these very models of education, duly localised, are proving their worth in contexts such as Hong Kong, where the lessons of Detweiler's <emph>The Evidence Liberal Arts Needs</emph> are well acknowledged and clearly reflected in a deep commitment to 'whole person education', 'service learning', etc. (Detweiler, [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref20">5</reflink>]).</p> <p>Consistent with liberal arts traditions, Nussbaum attributes great value to narratives or stories, as she makes her case for a capabilities-based approach to human flourishing. Stories, she explains, often ones anchored in Indian realities of deprivation or deficiency, helped her to clarify what humans fundamentally need to flourish. They enabled the precise identification of the ten basic entitlements that together provide the pre-conditions for a 'life with human dignity' (Nussbaum, [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref21">13</reflink>], 79). When thinking about what universities can do to become caring institutions committed to human flourishing it is helpful to consider the power of stories. Stories can be told in many ways, and they can be mobilised in order to develop (an understanding of) some of the critically important capabilities identified above. Sometimes the stories are told by a single person, owner of the story in question. For example, when the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology invited Sir David Tang, founder of the China Club (1991) and of the luxury fashion house Shanghai Tang (1994), to speak to its students, it was harnessing the power of an inspiring life story for the purpose of nurturing an understanding of capabilities essential to human flourishing (HKUST, n.d.).</p> <p>In addition to the way in which HKUST made use of Sir Tang's story, I am interested in another function that stories can serve. What I have in mind is a situation where the university partners with the community to <emph>perform, rather than explicitly tell</emph>, a story, the aim being to create a space where the contours and prerequisites of a dignified life can emerge with inspirational and transformative force. Here it is not about saying 'Let me impart my wisdom to you,' or 'I invite you to follow my example.' Rather, it is about inviting witnesses to the emerging story to ask questions such as these: 'What is a dignified life?' 'What do we, as humans, need to live a dignified life?' 'What, in the face of obstacles to a dignified life, are the resources that we, as humans, can draw on, to ensure that we flourish?' To illustrate my points, I propose to capture the theoretically relevant elements of a performance-based transformative story, a collaboration between the Lincoln School of Film, Media, and Journalism, the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre (now Lincoln Arts Centre), and the UK-based Shout at Cancer choir. This analytically-, theoretically-oriented retelling takes us onto the terrain of disability as it relates to human flourishing, facilitating a contribution to what Nussbaum regards as a neglected, yet highly promising dimension of the capabilities approach: 'An urgent problem of justice that is only now beginning to be confronted by modern societies is how to promote the capabilities of people with a wide range of physical and mental disabilities' (Nussbaum, [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref22">13</reflink>], 149)[<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref23">5</reflink>]</p> <hd id="AN0183127587-6">Developing students' capabilities through community engagement: Lessons from the shout at can...</hd> <p>There is much that civil society, the province of educational institutions and charities, can do to strengthen human capabilities and thus to create the conditions for human flourishing. As a means of substantiating this claim, I offer the example of 'From Silence into Song,' a performance that I brought to the University of Lincoln in 2023 with the aim of nurturing students' strengths, in keeping with the principles of the kind of 'whole person education' that I see as an especially valuable feature of the Hong Kong tertiary sector. [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref24">6</reflink>] In this sense, the initiative was a matter of seeking inspiration in Asia for problems requiring solutions in the UK. 'From Silence into Song' was performed at the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre on June 9, 2023. Designed and produced by Belgian National Health Services (NHS) ear, nose and throat consulting doctor Thomas Moors and composer-filmmaker Philip Clemo, this performance featured two 'survivor' choirs: the Shout at Cancer Choir, consisting of singers who, having undergone life-saving laryngectomies to remove part or all of their voice boxes, have learnt to produce sound by means of prosthetic devices; and the Choir of Survivor Trees, consisting of some of the so-called <emph>hibakujumoku</emph> (Pivovarchuk, [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref25">15</reflink>]), the now sacred trees that withstood the nuclear blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The 47 min cut of the 'From Silence into Song' performance video explains the connection between the two choirs: 'After the devastation of the atomic bombs detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 [...] scientists believed that nothing would grow in those cities for over 75 years. 3 months later, against all the odds, over 200 trees started coming back to life. They became symbols of hope. In August 2020, 75 years after the bombs were dropped [...] we recorded the inner soundscapes of these extraordinary trees, using highly sensitive sensors [...] And we filmed these silent witnesses in all their glory. This choir of survivor trees now sings with a choir of cancer sufferers who have lost their voices. They survived due to treatment with radiotherapy. The destructive and healing power of radiation come together in harmony in [...] 'From Silence into Song.'[<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref26">7</reflink>]</p> <p>Moors established the Shout at Cancer choir in 2015, having worked with professional opera singer La Verne Williams to develop 'singing exercises and breathing techniques' to 'maximise lung capacity' and 'control articulation,' capacities crucial to 'speech recovery.' Keenly aware of the extent to which voice is constitutive of identity, Moors' intent is to enable members of the marginalised community of laryngectomees to do the apparently impossible, to sing. Evidently sceptical of the kind of support groups that several choir members claim to have had no interest in joining, Moors focuses, not on loss, but on capabilities, even heroics. In conversation with Pivovarchuk, Moors puts the point as follows: 'You cannot deny that this is a traumatic experience [but it is also] almost heroic, if you want, that someone without a voice goes on stage [...], changes the weakness into something strong, into a superpower almost' (Pivovarchuk, [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref27">15</reflink>]). Rallying the choir during a rehearsal, Moors evokes powers beyond the ordinary: 'There's more magic in you than you think!' As Moors sees it, the choir is all about living rich, full lives, about 'working on [...] confidence, on turning the page, writing the new chapter. And enjoying life. I think the thing that they all have in common [is that] they're there to enjoy themselves and their time together' (Pivovarchuk, [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref28">15</reflink>]).</p> <p>Like many of the choir's members, quality assurance manager Sara Bowden-Evans highlights Moors' capabilities-focused approach as a distinctive feature of the choir: 'It wasn't about, 'Well, look at me, I've got cancer' [...]. We never even mentioned that. It's just about <emph>what we can do</emph> and <emph>not what we can't</emph>' (emphasis added). Spyridon Koskinas, a former wardrobe assistant at the English National Opera, similarly emphasises capabilities, the exploration of new horizons, and world-making in his conversation with Pivovarchuk. Koskinas evokes the 'intensity of Thomas' and its effects: it 'brings joy, it pushes you to do things [...] I don't need support—I need joy, I need to learn things' (Pivovarchuk, [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref29">15</reflink>]).</p> <p>For Irish-born actor Donal Cox, who sadly lost his fight with cancer in 2024, the loss of his voice was especially threatening. A voice-over artist who shared with Pivovarchuk that his voice has been described as 'liquid audio gold,' Cox joined the Shout at Cancer Choir after witnessing a performance in October 2022, at UCL's Bloomsbury Theatre. Recalling his reasons for wanting to join Moors' choir, Cox says: 'I think it was a response to the statement the choir was making: We're not going to settle for having no voice. We've got voice.' Pinpointing an attitudinal commonality that cuts across the choir, Pivovarchuk underscores that Donal, like Sara, 'was not looking for a support group to talk about surviving cancer.' Describing Donal as 'someone who values his creativity most in life,' Pivovarchuk quotes the voice-over artist as follows: 'this is so much more [than a support group] because the choir engages in creation of something that is beyond them—and that can really move people. And that's beautiful. To me, that's art. [...] I felt that fate had dealt me a really bad hand [...] But the secret to playing with such a hand is to turn it into a lived experience of humility and gratitude.' Humility and acceptance are attitudes considered all-important by the singers, but so are positivity, hope, creativity, and art, including the art of making the impossible happen. As Spyridon puts it in conversation with Pivovarchuk: 'What we achieve by performing is paramount [...] Everything is possible [...] when you are positive' (Pivovarchuk, [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref30">15</reflink>]).</p> <p>Making reference to Nussbaum's capabilities approach, it is clear that the 'From Silence into Song' performance resonates with six core capabilities: <emph>Senses, imagination, and thought</emph>; <emph>Emotions</emph>; <emph>Practical reason</emph>; <emph>Affiliation</emph>; <emph>Other species</emph>; and <emph>Play</emph>. For example, the ability 'to live with concern for and in relation to animals, plants, and the world of nature,' Nussbaum's gloss for the 'Other Species' capability, is a central theme throughout the performance, as the healing and destructive power of radiation is explored through sounds made audible by various prostheses (in the case of the laryngectomees) and complex technologies (in the case of the survivor trees). Making use of thermal and infrared cameras to film the movements of the trees and of sensors to record their sounds, Philip Clemo brings the trees into the performance space in ways that challenge ordinary perception but also the neglect to which the non-human realm of existence is often subjected.[<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref31">8</reflink>] Eery, uncanny, mystical, magical, and deeply moving, the images and soundscape of the trees combine with the human choir's physical presence and prosthetic voices to create a remarkable artistic experience that draws the mind to a range of virtues—persistence, courage, resilience, hope, empathy, and concern (for example for the flourishing of the non-human world)—while celebrating the power of art and community to transform and expand our worlds, to make and re-make our worlds.</p> <p>The affirming, transformative power of 'From Silence into Song' derives from the way in which a variety of strands are woven into the performance:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> <emph>Collaboration between the disabled and the non-disabled</emph> (on stage are 8 laryngectomees, Thomas Moors [choir master and conductor], Philip Clemo [sound-design, guitar, theremin, imagery], Christian Drew [composition, accordion, keys, voice, percussion] and Nuno Brito [drums &amp; percussion]).</item> <p></p> <item> <emph>Artistic experimentation</emph> (ordinary perception is expanded through the sounds and images of the Survivor Trees and the technology-assisted voices of the human singers).</item> <p></p> <item> <emph>Recognition and Witnessing</emph> (in 'Testimony from a Voice over Artist,' 03:20 – 05:32 in the video, Donal Cox tells and sings his story, drawing attention to talents initially lost and now re-conceived).</item> <p></p> <item> <emph>Themes of dignity, resilience, and hope</emph> </item> </ulist> <p>My claim is that 'From Silence into Song' tells a story about what human beings need to flourish, and that such storytelling is integral to the work of creating a caring educational environment for the next generation, for our students. Students, to put it simply, are likely to live better lives and to be better equipped for life's challenges if they have experienced, first-hand, remarkable stories of human and non-human flourishing against all odds. The story told through 'From Silence into Song' is about capabilities, about what it takes to live a dignified life, one where individuals are recognised fully as persons of distinctive value with contributions to make, and not reduced to the different-making, homogenizing impacts of disability as seen through the eyes of the non-disabled. But the scope of the story extends well beyond the hard-won, virtue-based capabilities of a marginalised group, for the sense of community evoked through the boundary-pushing, art-making collaboration of disabled and non-disabled performers draws all members of the audience into worlds both actual and imagined.</p> <p>In the actual world, non-disabled audience members witness the capabilities of disabled singers who collaborate—joyously, imaginatively, and creatively—with innovative non-disabled artists not only to re-claim their lives from the identity-destroying effects of life-threatening illness but to create a unique and highly meaningful artistic performance. In the possible worlds that the performance evokes, each and every member of the audience is a potential future victim of illness, or by extension, other traumatic events. And the questions that are implicitly posed through 'From Silence into Song' are these: 'How do you respond to the challenges in your life?' 'How serious are these challenges when seen through the kind of lens that 'From Silence into Song' offers?' 'What would you do if you were to experience a life-threatening illness?' 'What are the strengths within you that you would be able to muster?' 'What are the communities to which you might turn?' 'Would you be willing to learn new skills and forge new friendships, in order to reclaim a life lived with a strong sense of meaning and worth?' 'How grateful are you, in the day to day, for having thus far been spared the deprivations and losses that members of the Shout at Cancer Choir have experienced?'</p> <p>By joining the audience, students at the University of Lincoln generally had access to the life-orienting, capability-enhancing resource that 'From Silence into Song' affords. Additionally, students in selected programmes from across the Lincoln School of Film, Media, and Journalism (Sound and Music Production; Film Production; Journalism) were given the opportunity to work closely with Moors, Clemo, the singers, and the musicians. Responses elicited by students working for Siren Radio's Rose Braisby show that 'From Silence into Song' transported the student groups into what Greek philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis ([<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref32">4</reflink>]) calls the realm of 'kairotic time,' socially significant time (as compared with the banalities of chronological time). Students spoke of an experience they would always remember, one that would stay with them, as a significant, guiding resource. That resource has everything to do with insights into the capabilities-based nature of human flourishing, and with an awareness of the fundamental importance of sustaining a strong sense of <emph>agency</emph>, even in those cases where specialised medical interventions and treatments may be necessary.</p> <p>Let us conclude with the anonymised voices of a couple of the students who were moved by 'From Silence into Song' and who shared their thoughts with the student reporters:[<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref33">9</reflink>]</p> <p>I think what it was, was an incredible privilege to be in that room with those people. They've all been through such an incredible journey that I think is the tip of the iceberg of what they're experiencing. To be in that room and to celebrate their fight against adversity and to stay positive and bring that incredible music and those compositions was just mind blowing.</p> <p>It was one of the grounding moments that sort of reinvigorates your feeling and zest for life. You take it all for granted when you're going through the small things, and you realise these people have gone through such trauma and they come out the other side and turn it into such hope and positivity. They've been empowered by this and they spread a really powerful message.</p> <p>The performance became the basis for further collaboration between members of the Shout at Cancer Choir and the university's students. More specifically, Josh Rivett, one of the student filmmakers who captured the choir's performance on film, subsequently approached voiceover artist Donal Cox about participating in a documentary film of his that would also feature the filmmaker's grandmother, a local poet from Lincolnshire. This invitation suggests another capabilities-related feature of the case study presented here, namely, the opportunities for inter-generational collaboration and learning. For present purposes, however, the main point is that one of the standards by which we might measure a caring university is the extent to which the conditions for long-term human flourishing are being created. If we accept this as a candidate measure of care and caring, then we will need to pay more attention to how the core elements of a capabilities-oriented approach are being embedded across our offerings to students (be they curricular, extra-curricular, or co-curricular).</p> <p>It will be important to ensure that innovations along the proposed lines do not become the province of managers whose main commitment is to counting, measuring, and reporting, typically with the unending support of frontline academics. When taking the proposed ideas seriously, we must ensure that we do not generate and institutionalise a number of highly undesirable performative self-contradictions. Those involved in bringing the ideas to life—the frontline academics—must not themselves succumb to ill health of various kinds due to an overwhelming experience of constantly expanding duties. This point is especially important in the context of the UK sector's current financial crisis, one that has seen work models revised to ensure that various unchanged targets are met by a dramatically reduced community of academics (in the wake of high numbers of voluntary severances and redundancies).</p> <p>We will also need to be alert to the dangers of what Chatzidakis et al. ([<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref34">3</reflink>]) call 'care-washing'. A corporate strategy aimed at increasing profits, carewashing arises when an organisation attempts to foreground particular initiatives of limited scope and scale as caring initiatives, while retaining an overall approach, concealed behind layers of opacity, that contradicts the very meaning of care and caring. Corporate actors engaged in carewashing cynically appropriate the language of care because they are convinced that the consumers or markets they target are invested in, and moved by, the relevant concepts. Chatzidakis et al. ([<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref35">3</reflink>]) cite the case of the Irish multinational clothes retailer Primark as a prime example of a corporation that engages in carewashing. Committed to fast fashion and with a history of exploiting child labour, Primark launched a 'Primark cares' initiative with the apparent aim of defining the company's values in terms of caring 'for people' and 'the planet' and to sell a range of 'wellness products' billed as exemplifications of such caring (Chatzidakis et al., [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref36">3</reflink>]). It is to be hoped that the market forces that are often a significant factor in universities' strategies and decision making in certain jurisdictions can be prevented from colonising care and caring as these relate to students' flourishing. It is also to be hoped that the necessary resources will be found to embed a capabilities-based approach across universities. Whole-person education, as the example of Hong Kong shows, is resource-intensive, but also well worth the investment (Hjort, [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref37">8</reflink>]). After all, if it is helpful to evoke the 'bottom line,' graduates equipped with the long-term capabilities needed to flourish are ultimately net contributors to society rather than a drain on its resources.</p> <hd id="AN0183127587-7">Disclosure statement</hd> <p>No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).</p> <ref id="AN0183127587-8"> <title> References </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref1" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> Care Collective. (2022). The care manifesto: The politics of interdependence. Verso.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib2" idref="ref9" type="bt">2</bibl> <bibtext> Chan, B. (2014). Image-driven Sudoku app helps children with learning. 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Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach. Belknap of Harvard University Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> PFS Network (PFSN). (n.d.). https://<ulink href="http://www.pfsnetwork.org">www.pfsnetwork.org</ulink></bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Pivovarchuk, A. (2023). The choir helping people reclaim the voices they lost to cancer. Aljazeera, July 25. https://<ulink href="http://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/7/25/the-choir-helping-people-reclaim-the-voices-they-lost-to-cancer">www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/7/25/the-choir-helping-people-reclaim-the-voices-they-lost-to-cancer</ulink></bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Saito, Y. (2022). Aesthetics of Care: Practice in Everyday Life. Bloomsbury.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Sedition, S. (2020). Philip Clemo: The Trees of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. S[edition]. https://<ulink href="http://www.seditionart.com/magazine/philip-clemo-from-silence-into-song">www.seditionart.com/magazine/philip-clemo-from-silence-into-song</ulink></bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Shusterman, R. (2000). Somaesthetics and care of the self: The case of foucault. Monist, 83 (4), 530 – 551. https://doi.org/10.5840/monist200083429</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Student Minds (n.d.). Student Minds – The Hub. University Mental Health Charter. https://hub.studentminds.org.uk/university-mental-health-charter/</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Taylor, C. (1990). Modes of civil society. Public Culture, 3 (1), 95 – 118. https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-3-1-95</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Taylor, C. (1989). Sources of the self: The making of the modern identity. Harvard University Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> White, R. (2014). Foucault on the care of the self as an ethical project and a spiritual goal. Human Studies, 37 (4), 489 – 504. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10746-014-9331-3</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Young Minds. (2022). Press release. https://<ulink href="http://www.youngminds.org.uk/about-us/media-centre/press-releases/coronavirus-having-major-impact-on-young-people-with-mental-health-needs/">www.youngminds.org.uk/about-us/media-centre/press-releases/coronavirus-having-major-impact-on-young-people-with-mental-health-needs/</ulink></bibtext> </blist> </ref> <ref id="AN0183127587-9"> <title> Footnotes </title> <blist> <bibtext> For relevant commentaries on Foucault, see Richard Shusterman ([18]) and White ([22]).</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> https://<ulink href="http://www.youngminds.org.uk/about-us/media-centre/press-releases/coronavirus-having-major-impact-on-young-people-with-mental-health-needs/">www.youngminds.org.uk/about-us/media-centre/press-releases/coronavirus-having-major-impact-on-young-people-with-mental-health-needs/</ulink>.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> https://hub.studentminds.org.uk/university-mental-health-charter/.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> 'Selling sickness.'</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> See Bernice Chan ([2]) for an account of lawyer Jeevan Hingorani's efforts to enhance the conditions for human flourishing in the context of severe disabilities linked to brain disorders (cerebral palsy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and multiple sclerosis) and spinal cord injuries. Hingorani's initiative is a compelling example of how agency can be supported through care and caring.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> For many years undergraduates at the liberal arts university in Hong Kong, Lingnan University, had the option of taking a popular course entitled 'Life and Death.' Taught by the Cantonese philosopher Wong Wai-ying, the course resonated with the 'whole person' principles of education that have long been embedded in Hong Kong's tertiary sector. The initiative to bring 'From Silence into Song' to the University of Lincoln was in fact inspired by such principles. Responding to the mental health crisis I observed on campus when I arrived at the University of Lincoln in 2022, I sought to transfer to Lincoln some of the successful models of whole person education that I had worked with as an academic, over a period of 20 years, at three of Hong Kong's government funded universities (the University of Hong Kong, Lingnan University, and Hong Kong Baptist University).</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> 'From Silence into Song,' 47 minute cut of the LPAC performance on June 9, 2023; https://<ulink href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-YxrH6bjDs">www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-YxrH6bjDs</ulink>. The video includes: The Intro: 00'00" - 00'50". Welcome to the Jumble: 00'50" - 03'19". Testimony From a Voice over Artist: 03'20" - 05'32". Intro From Silence into Song Composition: 05'32" - 06'47". Explanation by the Composer Christian Drew: 06'47" - 10'10". From Silence into Song Composition (4 Sections): 10'10" - 32'11". Tree Chatterers: 33'05" - 34'11". Emergence: 34'11" - 36'20". Wood Wide Web: 36'20" - 43'18" (NEW!). Roots: 43'19" - 47'31".</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Further information about Clemo's process can be found in Sedition ([17]).</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> My thanks to my former University of Lincoln colleague Rose Braisby, and to her student team of interviewers for the University's FM radio, Siren, for the interviews from which these comments are extracted.</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <aug> <p>By Mette Hjort</p> <p>Reported by Author</p> <p></p> <p>Mette Hjort is Chair Professor of Film and Media and Head of the Department of Literature and Cultural Studies at the Education University of Hong Kong. She is the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate in Transnational Cinema Studies from the University of Aalborg and holds an Honorary Professorship at University College London, an Affiliate Professorship at the University of Washington, Seattle, and an Honorary Professorship at the University of Lincoln, UK. Mette's publications include Small Nation, Global Cinema (2005) and A Companion to Motion Pictures and Public Value (edited with Ted Nannicelli, 2022).</p> </aug> <nolink nlid="nl1" bibid="bib16" firstref="ref4"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl2" bibid="bib21" firstref="ref5"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl3" bibid="bib11" firstref="ref7"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl4" bibid="bib23" firstref="ref8"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl5" bibid="bib14" firstref="ref11"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl6" bibid="bib10" firstref="ref12"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl7" bibid="bib12" firstref="ref13"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl8" bibid="bib13" firstref="ref15"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl9" bibid="bib20" firstref="ref17"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl10" bibid="bib15" firstref="ref25"></nolink> |
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| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: The Caring University: Making the Case for Students' Agency and Capabilities – Name: Language Label: Language Group: Lang Data: English – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Mette+Hjort%22">Mette Hjort</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9013-4445">0000-0002-9013-4445</externalLink>) – Name: TitleSource Label: Source Group: Src Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22Educational+Philosophy+and+Theory%22"><i>Educational Philosophy and Theory</i></searchLink>. 2025 57(3):222-234. – Name: Avail Label: Availability Group: Avail Data: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals – Name: PeerReviewed Label: Peer Reviewed Group: SrcInfo Data: Y – Name: Pages Label: Page Count Group: Src Data: 13 – Name: DatePubCY Label: Publication Date Group: Date Data: 2025 – Name: TypeDocument Label: Document Type Group: TypDoc Data: Journal Articles<br />Reports - Evaluative – Name: Audience Label: Education Level Group: Audnce Data: <searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Higher+Education%22">Higher Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Postsecondary+Education%22">Postsecondary Education</searchLink> – Name: Subject Label: Descriptors Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Caring%22">Caring</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Universities%22">Universities</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22College+Students%22">College Students</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Mental+Health%22">Mental Health</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Personal+Autonomy%22">Personal Autonomy</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Academic+Ability%22">Academic Ability</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22World+Problems%22">World Problems</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Well+Being%22">Well Being</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Institutional+Characteristics%22">Institutional Characteristics</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Differences%22">Differences</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Knowledge+Level%22">Knowledge Level</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Tutors%22">Tutors</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Staff+Role%22">Staff Role</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Daily+Living+Skills%22">Daily Living Skills</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Foreign+Countries%22">Foreign Countries</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Case+Studies%22">Case Studies</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Community+Involvement%22">Community Involvement</searchLink> – Name: Subject Label: Geographic Terms Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22United+Kingdom+%28England%29%22">United Kingdom (England)</searchLink> – Name: DOI Label: DOI Group: ID Data: 10.1080/00131857.2024.2436085 – Name: ISSN Label: ISSN Group: ISSN Data: 0013-1857<br />1469-5812 – Name: Abstract Label: Abstract Group: Ab Data: While concepts of care and caring have a long history, the terms have become especially prominent in recent times. Care and caring, I argue, have emerged as what philosopher Charles Taylor calls 'moral sources,' uber-concepts that allow for moral deliberation, the prioritization of preferences, and our identity formation as persons. Linking the current salience of care to a growing awareness of the dynamics of a crisis- and catastrophe-ridden world, I consider care within the context of university students' declining mental health. Acknowledging role differentiation within universities and the contributions of Well-being units with specialist knowledge, I contend that frontline tutors without such knowledge have an important role to play in developing alternatives to an increasingly pervasive medicalised conception of care, one that constitutes students as passive patients. Drawing on Martha Nussbaum and Amartya Zen's capabilities approach to human flourishing, I suggest that there is considerable scope, within the civil society environments of the university sector, for life skills-oriented practices of care that are profoundly agential, and, through this, curative, protective, and liberating. I illustrate the relevance of the theoretical propositions through a case study of a collaborative performance of the 'Shout at Cancer Choir' (aka 'Laryngectomy Choir') at the University of Lincoln, UK, in 2023. The aim is to show how particular forms of community engagement, within or beyond the formal curriculum, create capabilities-based conditions for students' flourishing. – Name: AbstractInfo Label: Abstractor Group: Ab Data: As Provided – Name: DateEntry Label: Entry Date Group: Date Data: 2025 – Name: AN Label: Accession Number Group: ID Data: EJ1467800 |
| PLink | https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=eric&AN=EJ1467800 |
| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Identifiers: – Type: doi Value: 10.1080/00131857.2024.2436085 Languages: – Text: English PhysicalDescription: Pagination: PageCount: 13 StartPage: 222 Subjects: – SubjectFull: Caring Type: general – SubjectFull: Universities Type: general – SubjectFull: College Students Type: general – SubjectFull: Mental Health Type: general – SubjectFull: Personal Autonomy Type: general – SubjectFull: Academic Ability Type: general – SubjectFull: World Problems Type: general – SubjectFull: Well Being Type: general – SubjectFull: Institutional Characteristics Type: general – SubjectFull: Differences Type: general – SubjectFull: Knowledge Level Type: general – SubjectFull: Tutors Type: general – SubjectFull: Staff Role Type: general – SubjectFull: Daily Living Skills Type: general – SubjectFull: Foreign Countries Type: general – SubjectFull: Case Studies Type: general – SubjectFull: Community Involvement Type: general – SubjectFull: United Kingdom (England) Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: The Caring University: Making the Case for Students' Agency and Capabilities Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Mette Hjort IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 01 Type: published Y: 2025 Identifiers: – Type: issn-print Value: 0013-1857 – Type: issn-electronic Value: 1469-5812 Numbering: – Type: volume Value: 57 – Type: issue Value: 3 Titles: – TitleFull: Educational Philosophy and Theory Type: main |
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