This study aims to conduct a conceptual reflection on care. After reviewing the literature, with a special focus on the work of Ayres, we argue that it is necessary to think in two major ways to understand care in the sphere of health: on the one hand, care is a normative horizon that guides health practices; on the other, as we show through ethnographic discussion, care involves the daily construction of projects of the person within a framework of power relations. The former is an inspirational concept for the building of good health practices. The concept proposed here brings us closer to everyday life, to the practices of care people develop in a great diversity of contexts. Both concepts are linked to the ontological perspective of Care and are fundamental to the construction of a general theory of care.
health care; child care; normative horizon