Community care lies at the intersection of day-to-day life and the public world of service provision. Using the lens of one particular activity - bathing - this book explores what happens when the public world of professionals and service provision enters the lives of older and disabled people. In doing so it addresses wider issues concerning the management of the body, the meaning of carework and the significance of body care in the ordering of daily life. Bathing - the Body and Community Care provides an engaging text for students and will be of interest to a wide range of audiences, both social science and health science students and nursing and allied professionals