POWER AND LOCAL-COMMUNITY ACTIVITY

The current emphasis on community care raises issues of power relationships that have been little studied. In particular, the attitudes of carerecipients to the implications of community care have largely been ignored. Using the results of research which did confront this question, the article argues that personal values of care-recipients relating to privacy, independence and control may be violated in informal care regimes. Unbalanced reciprocity is shown to propel the weaker partner into dependence on the stronger, and subject the former to the power of the latter. It is argued that systems involving payment and choice are essential to preserve the dependent person 's sense of well-being and control. © 1991.