ConclusionEngaging the Political

In making clear how contemporary regimes of care are complicit in furthering the structural inequalities forged by capitalism, this chapter hopes to breathe new life and legitimacy into struggles in politics that look beyond the immediate present and that dare to confront the limits of this order. By focusing on the time of emergency, regimes of care render invisible other forms of suffering and violence that extend beyond the immediate present. As such, poverty and other forms of inequality and oppression that are long-term, chronic conditions are not always understood as morally legitimate suffering, worthy of care—and therefore not worthy of political action or redress. Political engagement, compellingly articulated by Jacques Rancière as the participation of those least likely to be political actors, necessarily changes the meaning of political action for everyone.