Models and Methods
Mapping Ageing in Place: Focused on Differently-mobile People Living in Various Contexts
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jeongmin Hyeong
In many nations, ageing in place is considered a standard practice for people to grow older in familiar environments without formal aid. The framework boasts many advantages both for people wishing to age in place, and for the state. However, the term can be vague and often embody different definitions depending on the context of use. Also, the extent of 'place' can look very different depending on an individual’s physical conditions and living arrangements. This study uses GIS mapping to effectively demonstrate and communicate the implications of ageing in place for differently-mobile individuals living in different geographical settings. Employing a mix of quantitative and qualitative GIS mapping and analysis, this paper uses synthesized profiles of people to analyze their potential mobility and activity range. The focus of this paper is on the neighborhood and surrounding environment rather than within the dwelling. The locations selected for analysis differ in rurality and public transit access, allowing for variations in the demonstration and visual comparison between locations. The results of this study suggest a notable contrast in the potential activity range depending on the neighborhood composition and surrounding geographical features. Parallel with such findings, this study suggests a methodological tool that could assist the evaluation of ageing in place adequacy for older people with mobility limitations. This can be useful for policy makers and potential aspirants of ageing in place in improving comprehension of the implications and plausible future risks entailing ageing in place in certain locations.
Assessing Generosity Towards the Elderly: A Comparative Study Across European Societies Examining Household Replacement Rates, Well-Being, and Economic Adequacy
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Aviad Tur-Sinai
Replacement rates have become accepted as a useful metric for assessing the conditions of retirees and households at point of retirement. We use data from the SHARE longitudinal database to investigate income dynamics within a comparative European context. Our analysis, centering on households as opposed to the individuals on whom international data commonly focus, reduces replacement rates to their components — pension, labor income, etc — and looks at the dynamics among household members in relation to work and pension income. Total replacement rates vary widely among the fourteen countries sampled: overall replacement rates of around the Bismarckian 70% across the entire sample, 80% in countries that have Social Democratic and Continental social-policy regimes, and 60% in countries that have East European and Middle Eastern regimes. Looking the pension and wage components, however, the latter accounts for about 30% of household income—an important fact for decision-makers to consider. Couples tend to retire together, especially if close in age, and labor income compensates amply for lower pension income. The Gini coefficients of our sample are compared before/after retirement to determine whether the social programs that underlie pensions mitigate income inequality after retirement. Post-retirement ability to move on the income ladder is another measure of equality. Finally, we examine the well-being and quality of life of retirees and their households. We find a positive correlation between replacement rate and indicators of retirees and their households’ quality of life, e.g.,satisfaction with life, ability to consume healthcare services, and ability to cover unforeseen expenses.
Who Cares for Informal Carers Filling the Gaps in Formal Eldercare in Denmark?: An Invisible Workforce in the Changing Welfare State
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Anne Liveng, Karen Christensen
Despite the Nordic welfare states’ ambitions of providing comprehensive services for covering the needs of their ageing populations, informal carers including family members, friends and neighbours, mostly women, are actively involved, and their lives are affected by the ways the formal system functions. The paper is based on interviews with adult informal carers providing care for older people receiving eldercare services in Denmark. It addresses the problem of the current political pressure on informal carers’ participation in formal eldercare while simultaneously providing no systematic strategies for recognising their role as informal carers. Thereby, potentially, an invisible care workforce is created, with very few formal rights. Using Honneth’s recognition theory and Winnicott’s concept of holding environment, the paper points at two ways the invisibility leads to violations of informal carers. The first takes place through a lack of recognition and holding of the challenging psycho-social emotions, we find among the informal carers for older people in close relationships, who encounter increasing thresholds for getting eldercare services provided by the municipality. The second violation concerns the non-involvement of informal carers’ knowledge about the older people they care for, despite policy strategies of providing person-centred eldercare, taking account of individual needs and circumstances, and despite ambitions of co-operation with informal carers. The paper contributes to the wider discussion of how eldercare services are developed in ways that increasingly, but unnoticeably, have disrupting consequences for the lives and work carriers of informal carers, and for their relationships to the older people they care for.