As the population ages, and welfare policy shifts care-giving responsibilities away from the state, it is increasingly necessary to consider the long-term care of older people and the role of informal carers. This book draws together a decade's worth of Christine Milligan's research with the wide interdisciplinary care-giving literature, to provide a critical analysis of care in community and residential settings. A geographical lens is used to examine the ways in which relationships change with sites, such as the home, and how transitions in the care-giving relationship are spatially embedded and manifested. The book unpacks and critically analyses terms and assumptions that have been at the cornerstone of community-care policies in neo-liberal states over the last 50 years. In doing so, it draws attention to pressing issues that need to be considered in the context of an ideological policy turn towards ‘ageing in place’.

The questions addressed in this book were precipitated by the author's own family experiences of informal care. Chapter 1 succinctly outlines the emergence of community-care policies and Chapter 2 builds on this by critically analysing academic conceptualisations of care, carers, care-giving relationships and the different sites of care. Issues of gender, class, ethnicity and culture are addressed in Chapter 3 in a discussion of who actually provides informal care. The book is primarily situated in the western and neo-liberal context, but Chapter 4 examines care in non-western settings in order to illustrate that care is not only a cultural practice but also shaped by the political and economic context (p. 43). This chapter also makes the important point that care is a two-way process as older people may be care-givers themselves (p. 59). As the home is framed as the appropriate locus of long-term care it can become institutionalised: Chapter 5 examines how this affects the relationship that older people and informal carers have with their homes.

I found Chapter 6 particularly interesting. Through a discussion of new care technologies, it highlights the way in which care-giving networks are extending and, for example, how call centres are being framed as sites of care (p. 86). The premise that the community will care is challenged in Chapter 7, which also builds on previous chapters, by questioning the policy assumption that the community is a stable and bounded geographical locale (p. 91). Chapters 8 and 9 look at the theme of change: the negotiation of care transitions from the home to residential settings and how emotions attached to places change over space and time. The issue of porosity (the blurring between the boundary of formal and informal care) is addressed throughout the book. Chapter 10 draws these discussions together, with Milligan considering whether community care is a new form of institutionalisation (p. 145). Chapter 11 provides a succinct conclusion.

This book is a timely and valuable contribution to emerging work in the geography of care and care-giving. More importantly, in using a geographical lens, it develops in an innovative way the existing sociological, social gerontology, health sciences and social policy literatures that have not fully explored the ways in which care-giving is spatially shaped. This book demonstrates how care is negotiated across numerous sites, spaces and scales; and that the boundary between informal and formal care is increasingly blurred. In uncovering the situated nature of care, the geographical perspective draws attention to the limits of current policy. In sum, this book provides an excellent addition to the current literature. It is well written and provides a clear account of the policy and theoretical landscape. The book successfully draws together a wide interdisciplinary literature. Case studies and secondary data are effectively used to illustrate concepts. Although detailed national comparisons are not made, the issues considered do have wide relevance. This book will be of interest to students and researchers working in the health and social sciences.