Two concluding sections then analyse the implications for the reconfiguration of care relationships within families and the reconfiguration of‘care diamonds’and social reproduction. These three dimensions are not mutually exclusive, indeed, their overlap is what makes care a complex phenomenon. The complexity deepens when we consider that care work may be paid or unpaid, be performed by women or men, and can take place within the household or in institutions such as hospitals, residential care homes, nurseries, day-care centres, social and community work settings, schools, offices and hotels. Care has become a central concern of social policy because of its crucial relationship to production, welfare regimes and social reproduction, as well as its implications for gender equality (Razavi and Hassim 2006).