ABSTRACT
This book is about work referred to today in the United Kingdom (UK),1
both in policy and everyday language, as ‘care’ – childcare (both in centres and family day care), home or domiciliary care, residential care, foster care and (sometimes used as a blanket term) social care. It is about the people who are engaged in this work, both paid workers, whether employees or self-employed, and unpaid workers, including relatives, friends and neighbours and volunteers. It is about who these workers are; what their work entails, including both activities and relationships; their conditions of work and where they work; and the education and knowledge they require and receive. Focused mainly on the UK, the book draws on experience from other countries, to demonstrate how care work can be differently conceptualised and structured and, in so doing, to raise questions about taken-for-granted assumptions.
