Reciprocal care as a psychosocial practice: a relational model of interdependence, agency, and community well-being
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The growing prominence of care in contemporary societies has generated an extensive body of research on its ethical, political, economic, and organizational dimensions. However, care has often been conceptualized either as a set of tasks aimed at meeting dependency needs or as a normative principle, with less attention paid to the psychosocial mechanisms through which caring relationships shape human agency and collective life. This conceptual article proposes a relational psychosocial model of reciprocal care that explains how vulnerability, through processes of interdependence and recognition, can be transformed into relational agency and community well-being. Drawing on Social Psychology, recognition theory, feminist care ethics, and the sociology of social problems, the article argues that vulnerability constitutes the anthropological condition of human existence, while interdependence represents its inevitable social expression. Recognition is conceptualized as the central psychosocial mechanism through which shared vulnerability becomes a source of relational agency, enabling individuals not only to develop their own capacities but also to expand those of others. From this perspective, reciprocal care is understood not merely as a response to dependency but as a generative psychosocial process that fosters trust, reciprocity, responsibility, and social participation. Community well-being is consequently reconceptualized as an emergent property of relational systems capable of sustaining mutual recognition and shared responsibility. By integrating concepts that have frequently been examined separately into a single explanatory framework, the proposed model offers a novel psychosocial account of reciprocal care and provides a theoretical foundation for future empirical research on the relational conditions that sustain democratic and caring communities.
Source: Frontiers in Psychology
Institution: Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,801
OpenAlex ID: W7225777952