VOLUNTEER CARE FOR AN AGING POPULATION: HIGHER QUALITY OF LIFE FOR CARING AND CARE RECEIVING PEOPLE?

Abstract

Aging is increasingly accompanied by themes of care. While younger and fitter elderly are invited to participate in the context of voluntary activities the older take advantage of this offers. The debate on the organization of care and treatment of an aging population follows two main lines of discussion: One is on the context of social change and political necessities. While the number of aging people is increasing, welfare state security systems do not seem suitable to cope with the associated (expected) challenges. The other main line to these developments is that family support systems are precarious as less and less resources are available for the acquisition of necessary care due to an increasing focus on gainful employment. From a feminist point of view “care” is understood as a social practice that involves the whole of the paid and unpaid care work. It has to be equipped with identifiable structural conditions such as material and time resources, in both the private as well as in public spaces. This paper presents results of a qualitative research with people who are engaged as volunteers for support services for elderly in rural areas. The main question is how volunteer care manifests in and for an aging population and in which kind gender differences continue.