The Fifth Wave

Building better care.

The Fifth Wave is a laboratory of ideas dedicated to building a future of fair, valued and collective caregiving.

The problem

We all care, and are all cared for. Some, more than others — care is one of the most universal yet most unequally distributed of human activities. Rooted in the misogynistic devaluation of care work, this inadequate organisation traps millions into lives of precarity and exhaustion.

It denies vulnerability and interdependence as central pillars of the social fabric: the default human agent is male, autonomous, able-bodied, adult, white, and economically productive, leaving many of those who do not fit that model to make do with institutions ill-adjusted to them. Patriarchal violence and systems of thinking cannot be dismantled without a fundamental shift in the structure and value of care.

Our vision

The Fifth Wave believes in the care society: a concrete horizon of mutual support, solidarity, dignity and non-domination. In it, care would be central, shared, valued, intergenerational, fair and collective, rather than segmented and confined to the margins of our cities. Only in such a world could all of us have a chance to give and receive good care. Only in such a world could all of us have the opportunity to thrive.

Our work

• Analysis. We analyse local and national alternatives to current care systems, in order to learn from, adapt, and replicate them. When it comes to social innovation, the “local initiative —> replication —> integration into the national infrastructure” pipeline is a tried and tested way to drive society-wide change. We believe in starting small, and scaling what works.

• Interviews. We publish interviews with people building the futures of care, whether through their practice or their thinking. People who make up for the harshness of our systems with creativity and passion. And because the best insights on care come from caring, we ask all our interviewees: “Who do you care for, and who cares for you?”

• Essays. We work to shift narratives around care, showing that humans are interdependent, vulnerable, and better set up to flourish when supported by resilient care systems. We aim to elevate the importance of caregiving in all its forms, as essential public infrastructure, as a structuring principle of social life, and as a central concern of political decision-making.

Our values

As our name reveals, we are a feminist publication and community, with a strong intellectual debt to the many feminist writers, activists and academics who have long enriched and questioned our ideas about care. We are committed to advancing reproductive justice, acknowledging the vital role that Black and queer feminists in particular have played — and are still playing — in that fight.

We are a global platform, aiming to bring into dialogue a variety of perspectives on care from across the world. Care is about as universal a human activity as it gets, as there is much to be learned from innovations taking place everywhere.

Care is not politically neutral — it is deeply marked by inequality of gender, race, and class. We aim to highlight this in our research, and shed light on the intersection of fairer care with environmental justice, LGBTQ+ rights, disability rights, racial justice, and more.

Team

TFW was created in September of 2025 by me, Mélina Magdelénat.

A graduate from the University of Oxford, I’m building a French think tank, Cara, dedicated to advancing the care society by placing vulnerability and interdependence at the heart of our public policies. I’m also a freelance editor and a Visiting Fellow at U.S-based think tank Capita.

My broader research interests include the interplay of care systems and intrafamily violence; men and masculinities; feminist theory; carceralism and the judicial treatment of sexual offences. I am particularly fascinated by the intersection of masculinity and affective education — how men learn to care, how different societies teach them to, and how we can design better paths for men into caregiving roles.

I am grateful to be working with writers and scholars who contribute to the platform and the project, directly or indirectly, including Bethany Hansel, Zoë Clark, Pragya Dev, Christine Leroy, Jessica Mariana Masucci, and Hélène Collis.

Get involved

Just like caregiving itself, building the futures of care is a collective effort. If you resonate with our mission and would like to be a part of the journey, don’t hesitate to email Mélina Magdelénat at melina@fifthwaveinstitute.com.

If you would simply like to follow along and learn about the futures of care, subscribe to our newsletter. And if you would like to support our work, helping us bring you more in-depth research and better interviews while fairly compensating those on whose efforts this publication stands, consider becoming a paid subscriber.