Care for the Community: Inmates, Patients, Consumers and Citizens

Abstract

This chapter is concerned with an analysis of the social construction and changing relationship between the state and providers of care and the groups who are the ‘cared-for’ in and by the community. We began this part with a model of the sites of provision of care (see Introduction), and within this model the identity of those who comprise the ‘cared-for’ was suggested as being that of either the ‘unproductive’ or the ‘productive’. This definition will now be looked at in more depth. The delivery of community care to defined groups takes place within a set of cultural beliefs, an economic structure and a changing society.