Care has been struggled for, resisted and celebrated. The failure to care in 'care services' has been seen as a human rights problem and evidence of malaise in contemporary society. But care has also been implicated in the oppression of disabled people and demoted in favour of choice in health and social care services.

In this bold wide ranging book Marian Barnes argues for care as an essential value in private lives and public policies. She considers the importance of care to well-being and social justice and applies insights from feminist care ethics to care work, and care within personal relationships. She also looks at 'stranger relationships', how we relate to the places in which we live, and the way in which public deliberation about social policy takes place. This book will be vital reading for all those wanting to apply relational understandings of humanity to social policy and practice.

"Recommended" Library Choice Journal
“It is fascinating for those of us who have participated in the development of care ethics as moral theory, whilst being relatively unfamiliar with day-to-day practice in social work, socially provided care of the disabled, and the like, to see how the theory plays out in an area of application such as that described by Barnes” – Journal of Social Policy
"This text is significant in both its timeliness and scope. In exploring the concept of care in everyday settings it makes a major contribution to current debates about care ethics." Joan Orme, Glasgow School of Social Work
"In this wide-ranging analysis of various locales where feminists have applied an ethic of care, Barnes convincingly shows the centrality of care in understanding human life and social policy." Joan C. Tronto, University of Minnesota

Marian Barnes is Professor of Social Policy at the University of Brighton, UK. She has researched and written on the experience of care giving, of ageing and of mental health difficulties. She has also researched the way service users have sought to shape health and social care services, and different forms of participative policy making. Her recent work has reflected on these practices and experiences from the perspective of care ethics.