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.

"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

• Introduction; Conceptual, philosophical and political perspectives on care; Care and intimate others; Working at care; Friends, neighbours and communities; Civility, respect and recognition: the 'comfort of strangers'?; Places and environments; Deliberating with care: achieving social and political change; Conclusion.

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.

"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

• Introduction; Conceptual, philosophical and political perspectives on care; Care and intimate others; Working at care; Friends, neighbours and communities; Civility, respect and recognition: the 'comfort of strangers'?; Places and environments; Deliberating with care: achieving social and political change; Conclusion.