Conventional accounts of social policy have tended to present it as a battle between welfare state past and a more pluralist present; between paternalistic central planning and a drive for personalised choice and control, or most baldly, between neoliberal market and old style ‘statism’. The aim of the first part of the book is to try and get a better understanding of current trends in social policy and possible futures, by looking more carefully at their relationships with the past and with people on the receiving end. It also sets the scene for an exploration of how we look after each other, which places an emphasis on it as a participatory and democratic project.