Paper short abstract:

Drawing on ethnographic data from Indonesia, this paper unsettles stereotypical representations of older people as either frail or heroic. It does so by examining the negotiation of care and of social identities between older spouses, older and younger volunteers, and past and present selves.

Paper long abstract:

As the convenors of this Panel note, old age is a life-stage marked by immense diversity. This diversity is poorly captured by dominant representations of older people as dependent, vulnerable, or frail. Yet, alternative representations of ‘actively-ageing’, ‘successful’ and agentic older people risk marginalising and devaluing the common human experience of dependence and need. How can we hold these contrasting realities in our sights while at the same time unsettling and challenging the stereotypes which underpin the two extremes?

The study of care observes an arena in which older people’s vulnerability and active agency often come to coexist. This permits a more realistic, empirically grounded examination of the lived experiences of ageing, and the role of representations within these (e.g. of infantilisation, inevitability or culpability of decline, or more positively, of intergenerational interdependence). This paper draws on evidence from an ESRC-funded project on older people’s care networks in Indonesia. Using emerging ethnographic data on older care dependent people, members of their care networks, and community volunteers from five sites across Indonesia, we examine the relationship between care-giving and care-receiving older spouses, care-dependent parents and their adult children, older and younger volunteers, and individuals’ former and present social identities. This allows us to examine the negotiation of care, shifting power dynamics within families and local organisations, and what this reveals about ageing and later life in contemporary Indonesia.