Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the caregiving/receiving practice among Finnish seniors who live at home in the Archipelago region and Lapland. By questioning when does the choice to live alone in frail conditions in remote areas become unusual, the relationship between the rural carescapes and the people’s attachment to their homes will be analysed.

Paper long abstract:

In Finland, home care is regarded as a progressive social service

compared to the old-fashioned institutional care. According to the

Ministry of Health and Welfare, it is more humane and cost-effective

approach because it promotes autonomy of senior citizens. It is customer

-oriented, thus suits the neoliberal ideology of the policy. However,

this scheme is not applicable to all the senior citizens. The ideal home

care customer would be those who live in apartment rooms in urban

location with relatively good health. Municipalities doesn’t actively

recommend senior citizens to stay at home if their house is situated in

extremely remote location or they are dangerously fragile. Delivering

home care service to those customers is costly.

Still, after the Finnish welfare state taking neoliberal turn, number of

seniors who chose to stay home with difficulty is more prominent than

before. Then, when does the choice to live alone in frail conditions in

remote areas become counter-progressive to the eyes of public service?

What kind of attachment to the place does senior citizens bring out to

assert their decision to stay? This paper examines the amalgam of

informal/formal care practice among Finnish seniors in rural regions.

The ethnographic data is based on research in Finnish Archipelago and

Lapland where geographical disadvantage and the minority languages limit

the access to public/private care service. By comparing the local

carescapes (Milligan and Wiles 2010) which are consists of kinship ties,

neighbourhood, geographical prerequisite, politico-economic condition

and morality, people’s attachment to their homes will be analysed.