Theory, culture, care

Care is a multifaceted and contentious terrain, as amply exemplified by the post-COVID landscape that underscores pervasive social and economic vulnerabilities. Engaging in interdisciplinary work spanning Environmental Humanities, Art, Literary Studies, Rhetoric and Cultural Studies, the collection of papers in this Special Issue engages in the rapidly expanding worldwide discourse on the necessity of critically reassessing ‘care and caring’ in the post-COVID moment. In the collection, of which the majority of the projects were developed in Hong Kong, the authors review the opportunities and problems inherent in the contemporary moment with the aim of building a new critical cultural understanding of care. This introductory essay to the Special Issue provides a framing of the papers in the collection: in more-than-human projects, in practices of sustainable initiatives for communities, in artistic pursuits and in film representations. Each paper presents a unique theoretical analysis of the complex aspects of care, and the ways in which transformational interventions may help to reframe care as speculative mattering practices. Copyright © 2025 The Author(s).