Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on at home as a space of care and its impact on ways of ageing in the precarious social policies context in Spain. We understand the home as an idealised and changing space that (un)fits according to the specific material and spatial conditions and demands of care in ageing.

Paper long abstract:

This paper aims at the home as a care space for older persons and its impact on ageing. In Spain, long-term care for older persons occurs mainly at home due to precarious social policies. The welfare system is noticeably family and home-based. In addition to the complex “mosaic of care resources” (Soronellas et al. 2021), coming from various social actors such as the family, the market, the State and the community, the configuration of the home itself is added; understood in this communication from a symbolic, material, and architectural perspective. In this sense, the home is constructed as a safe space for care. A space idealised by its carers and the older people who live in it. It is a changing environment in its functions, meanings, and structure determined by the (un)fit the material conditions of the house (defined by class and origin), the demands of care in ageing (fragilities and vulnerabilities) and its socio-spatial configuration (urban/rural, flats/houses). Based on ethnographic research conducted in Spain, we will analyse three cases of ageing at home that recreate it like a heterogeneous cultural experience within a context of weak care policies. We try to answer questions about: what does it mean to age at home?; how does the home condition ageing (according to class and origin)?; how is the home constructed as a space of care and on which emic variables does it depend?; and what are the limits and potentialities of care at home in long-term care for older people?

Reference

Soronellas, Montserrat, Carlos Chirinos, Natalia Alonso and Dolors Comas-d’Argemir. 2021. “Hombres, cuidados y ancianidad: un bricolaje de ayudas, un mosaico de recursos de cuidados (Cataluña, España)”. In Ganarse la vida. La reproducción social en el mundo contemporáneo, edited A. Castro, R.H. Contreras and J. Conteras, 209-235. Ciudad de México: UNAM.