Julia Johnson, Sheena Rolph and Randall Smith (2010). Residential Care Transformed: Revisiting ’The Last Refuge’. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 272 pp. ISBN: 978 0 230 0242 9 (hardback)

摘要

Residential care for older people has for many decades been a symbol forvulnerability, passivity and the last resort. In understanding the institutionof care homes, Peter Townsend’s book The Last Refuge has been a landmarkstudy for both the academic world and the social and political commentatorsand decision makers. Julia Johnson, Sheena Rolph and RandallSmith manage with the help of 100 volunteers to not only revitalise thegroundbreaking work of Townsend but also produce an inspiring andchallenging document on the study of the lives of a large group of society.The book gives insights into the changing nature and the changing contextof care for elderly people, and, as I would argue, more importantly,provides insights into the potentials, the specifics, the joys and difficultiesof empirical social inquiry.