Paper short abstract:

In Denmark, the welfare state has made solo living a structural possibility and a cultural value. In the context of increased focus on informal care 'at home', what kinds of vulnerabilities emerge when solo living citizens turn ill and dependent, and how are these new 'care borders' navigated?

Paper long abstract:

Still more people live alone, globally and in Denmark where a comprehensive welfare system has made it possible and culturally approved to make living arrangements independent of family and social relations, sustained by notions of an egalitarian individualism. The state is 'taking care' of basic needs such as healthcare when citizens fall ill. However, an increasing and politically driven focus on informal care and the home as a 'natural' site of care is changing the care terrains of the welfare state, most explicitly among people who have no 'natural carers' in their homes.

Departing in prolonged fieldwork, I explore how solo living elderly adults in cancer care navigate these shifting borders of care by looking at care as social exchanges among intimate others. Based on the empirical material, I analyse solo living as social reality; as something that is lived, felt and experienced, nor solely negative nor solely positive, but simply as a life circumstance or choice that becomes challenged in the context of serious illness and shifting healthcare terrains. With inspiration from exchange theory I address the dynamics between social relatedness, basic human vulnerability and care needs and practices. I show how solo living is a social endeavour; an individual and collective achievement that is continuously in progress and becomes very explicit when people face and negotiate care needs. The paper points towards and amplifies the shifting lines between the modern welfare state and fundamental human vulnerability that come to the fore when people become dependent while living independently