Over the last few decades, population ageing, coupled with other significant changes (such as increasing female labour market participation and declining fertility rates), has led to the emergence of a structural care deficit in contemporary societies. A specific compromise between universalism and marketisation has increasingly enabled this deficit to be covered through an impressive extension of long-term care policies in many countries (albeit to different degrees), especially in Europe. However, over the last decade, retrenchment of public funding and processes leading to the privatisation/commodification of care have become dominant, giving rise to various tensions and shifts in the care policy field. This Focal Issue of Politiche Sociali/Social Policies examines these tensions in an international perspective.