Ethics of Care for Software Engineering
This is an incremental position paper proposing a philosophical shift for software engineering researchers and conference organizers.
The paper addresses the gap between software engineering research and industrial practice by attributing it to a lack of personal engagement, advocating for the adoption of ethics of care to improve this connection.
Software engineering researchers repeatedly argue that the impact of their research on industrial practice, while desired and intended, is rarely achieved. We believe that a possible explanation of this phenomenon is the opposition of "caring about" and "caring for", based on the ethics of care. Indeed, while software engineering is collaborative and hence builds on interpersonal relations, researchers tend to care about "industrial impact" and "practitioners" in abstract terms, but rarely care for specific individuals working in specific contexts facing specific challenges. In this position paper, we advocate for the adoption of ethics of care in software engineering and discuss the implications of this adoption for researchers and conference organizers.