Community care has long been the preferred policy for caring for dependent people. This book, first published in 1988, challenges accepted ideas about community care, arguing that it is based on assumptions about an ''ideal model'' of family life which in practice disadvantages both disabled and older people and women carers alike.

New to this Edition:
- Takes full account of major developments in community care since 1988
- Draws on an eclectic range of feminist, historical and ethnographic sources
- Proposes alternative and collective approaches to caring