Paper short abstract:

This paper deals with care in relation to the elderly and the system of social protection in Catalonia. It refers to the elderly's expectations regarding their own care and how they are different from previous generations. Key concepts are family duties, claims on public services and citizenship rights.

Paper long abstract:

This paper shows the results of a research study carried out in Catalonia which deals with care and the system of social protection to dependents. It addresses care in relation to the elderly and analyses the interaction between the social services as regards municipal health services, nets of family and community solidarity, and any other services available nowadays. Our research question refers to the elders' expectations as far as their own care is concerned and how it is different from previous generations. In Spain, the most frequent model of dependence has been traditionally based on the informal care taken by the family unit -mainly women-. However, the ethnographic fieldwork reveals that a remarkable sector of elderly women show a different perception of care depending on whether they are being addressed as daughters -care givers-, or mothers -care takers-. As daughters, they hardly ever question whether they must take care of their parents; whereas, as mothers, they are ambivalent over their right to be looked after by their children. Contrary to what might be expected, a significant number of women who have worked as care takers for their elders -in some cases over long periods of time and at the expense of making huge personal and material sacrifices- do not claim attention from their relatives, but would rather be taken care of by public institutions that are often unavailable (well-developed home-help services, decent vacancies in public nursing homes; well-fitted out buildings and homes; fully-equipped shared flats; etc.)

Thus, it should be highlighted that fewer claims on family duties (i.e.: expecting to be looked after by their children) are replaced by increased claims on public home-help services, which are regarded as citizenship rights. However, due to limited economic resources and scant public supplies, the only resource available seems to be quite often the informal care provided by either family relatives or by the so-called black economy, which is mainly fed by non-professional informal "elderly- care takers", who are usually immigrants. It should be pointed out, though, that the elders usually resort to these people because their economic and political context prevents their access to other preferred resources. As a consequence, the moral field of family duties is being redefined: children are not in charge of their elders' care anymore and elderly people ask for their right to receive help from public authorities, in terms of being part of the citizenry.

* The following research study has been carried out within a research project, "Cultures of responsibility in the economic and political domain: morality, reciprocity and resource circulation", directed by Dr. Susana Narotzky and financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (reference BS022003-06832). Likewise, it has been subsidized by the Centre de Promoció de la Cultura Tradicional i Popular de Catalunya (Department of Culture, Generalitat de Catalunya) (reference 2005/02349).