Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T13:45:19.851Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Creating a common world through action: what participation in community activities means to older people

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2018

Chikako Endo Open the ORCID record for Chikako Endo [Opens in a new window]
Chikako Endo*
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan
*
*Corresponding author. Email: cendo@hus.osaka-u.ac.jp
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

As a response to demographic ageing, various governments have been promoting social policies that promote older people's participation in productive activities, including those outside the formal labour market. Nevertheless, older people's behaviours do not simply reflect government policies and intentions. This paper explores how older people themselves interpret their social roles within a policy context that seeks to position them as providers of welfare through their participation in community activities. For this purpose, this paper draws on a qualitative case study of older people in Japan engaging in health promotion and mutual aid among local residents. By employing Hannah Arendt's distinction between the human activities of labour, work and action as a conceptual framework, it finds that although the purported purpose of community activities was to substitute decreasing pensions and family care or to create a better community, participants in this study valued their activities as a process of creating new relations and new realities through action. The paper argues that while labour has occupied a predominant position in the post-war welfare paradigm, community activities by an expanding population of older people may offer opportunities for action, which were not always available through paid work or care-giving in the household.

Keywords

communitymutual aidcarelabourworkHannah Arendt
Type
Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 40 , Issue 6 , June 2020 , pp. 1175 - 1194
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arendt, H ([1958] 1998) The Human Condition. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avramov, D and Maskova, M (2003) Active ageing in Europe. Population Studies 41, 1–152.Google Scholar
Biggs, S, McGann, M, Bowman, D and Kimberley, H (2017) Work, health and the commodification of life's time: reframing work–life balance and the promise of a long life. Ageing & Society 37, 1458–1483.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blix, BH and Hamran, T (2018) ‘When the saints go marching in’: constructions of senior volunteering in Norwegian government white papers, and in Norwegian senior volunteers’ and health-care professionals’ stories. Ageing & Society 38, 1399–1428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boudiny, K (2013) ‘Active ageing’: from empty rhetoric to effective policy tool. Ageing & Society 33, 1077–1098.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Braun, V and Clarke, V (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology 3, 77–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cabinet Office (2017) Heisei 29 nen ban korei shakai hakusho [Annual Report on the Aging Society 2017]. Tokyo: Cabinet Office.Google Scholar
Creswell, JW (2013) Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Daly, M and Westwood, S (2018) Asset-based approaches, older people and social care: an analysis and critique. Ageing & Society 38, 1087–1099.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dietz, MG (1991) Hannah Arendt and feminist politics. In Pateman, C and Shanley, ML (eds), Feminist Interpretations and Political Theory. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, pp. 232–252.Google Scholar
Erlinghagen, M and Hank, K (2006) The participation of older Europeans in volunteer work. Ageing & Society 26, 567–584.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fraser, N (1997) Justice Interruptus: Critical Reflections on the ‘Postsocialist’ Condition. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Government of Japan (1995) The Basic Law on Measures for the Aging Society (Law No. 129, 1995). Available at http://www8.cao.go.jp/kourei/english/measure/kihon-e.html.Google Scholar
Greenfield, EA and Mauldin, RL (2017) Participation in community activities through Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (NORC) Supportive Service Programs. Ageing & Society 37, 1987–2011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hashimoto, S (2016) Kaisei kaigo hoken seido to shimin ni yoru tasukeai katsudo no aratana tenkai [Revision of the Long-term Care Insurance Act and a New Movement of Mutual Assistance Activities Led by Local Citizens: Rethinking the Meaning of a Citizen-led Welfare Organization]. Bulletin of the Faculty of Sociology, Kansai University 48, 25–60.Google Scholar
Hino, S (2009) Chiiki kara kenko wo tsukuru – iryo seikyo to iu chosen [Creating Health from the Community: The Challenge of the Health Co-op]. Tokyo: Nihon Shuppansha.Google Scholar
Honneth, A (1992) Integrity and disrespect: principles of a conception of morality based on the theory of recognition. Political Theory 20, 187–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iwata, M (2016) Shakai fukushi no topos – shakai fukushi no aratana kaishaku wo motomete [Topos of Social Welfare]. Tokyo: Yuhikaku.Google Scholar
Izuhara, M (2003) Social inequality under a new social contract: long-term care in Japan. Social Policy & Administration 37, 395–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jensen, PH, Lamura, G and Principi, A (2014) Volunteering in older age: a conceptual and analytical framework. In Principi, A, Jensen, PH and Lamura, G (eds), Active Ageing: Voluntary Work by Older People in Europe. Bristol, UK: Policy Press, pp. 21–44.Google Scholar
Johnson, KJ and Mutchler, JE (2014) The emergence of a positive gerontology: from disengagement to social involvement. The Gerontologist 54, 93–100.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Katagiri, K (2012) Taishoku shinia to shakai sanka [Japanese Retirees and Social Participation: A Challenge to the Third Age]. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press.Google Scholar
Kittay, EF (2001) A feminist public ethic of care meets the new communitarian family policy. Ethics 111, 523–547.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Komp, K and Béland, D (2012) Guest editorial: Balancing protection and productivity: international perspectives on social policies for older people. International Journal of Social Welfare 21, S1–S7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kono, M (2000) The impact of modernisation and social policy on family care for older people in Japan. Journal of Social Policy 29, 181–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kotre, JN (1984) Outliving the self: generativity and the interpretation of lives, Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Kurimoto, A and Kumakura, Y (2016) Emergence and evolution of co-operatives for elderly care in Japan. International Review of Sociology 26, 48–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levasseur, M, Richard, L, Gauvin, L and Raymond, É (2010) Inventory and analysis of definitions of social participation found in the aging literature: proposed taxonomy of social activities. Social Science & Medicine 71, 2141–2149.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lie, M, Baines, S and Wheelock, J (2009) Citizenship, volunteering and active ageing. Social Policy & Administration 43, 702–718.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lincoln, YS and Guba, EG (1985) Naturalistic Inquiry. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lister, R (2002) Citizenship and changing welfare states. In Andersen, JG and Jensen, PH (eds), Changing Labour Markets, Welfare Policies and Citizenship. Bristol, UK: Policy Press, pp. 39–57.Google Scholar
Macnicol, J (2015) Neoliberalising Old Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) (2002) Direction of Health and Welfare Policies for the Elderly Over the Next Five Years – Gold Plan 21. Available at http://www.mhlw.go.jp/english/topics/elderly/care/6.html.Google Scholar
Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) (2004) Kaigo hoken seido no minaoshi ni kansuru iken [Opinion on Revision of the Long-term Care Insurance System]. Long-term Care Insurance Committee of the Social Security Council. Available at www.mhlw.go.jp/shingi/2004/07/s0730-5.html.Google Scholar
Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) (2014) Heisei 26 nen kaigo hoken ho kaisei [Revision of the Long-term Care Insurance System 2014]. Available at http://www.mhlw.go.jp/file/06-Seisakujouhou-12300000-Roukenkyoku/k2014.pdf.Google Scholar
Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) (2016) Annual Health, Labor and Welfare Report 2016 Edition: Consideration of a Social Model to Overcome Demographic Aging. Tokyo: MHLW.Google Scholar
Miura, M (2012) Welfare Through Work: Conservative Ideas, Partisan Dynamics, and Social Protection in Japan. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miyamoto, T, Peng, I and Uzuhashi, T (2003) Nihongata fukushi kokka no ichi to doutai [Position and dynamics of the Japanese welfare state]. In Esping-Andersen, G (ed.), Tenkanki no fukushi kokka [Welfare States in Transition]. Tokyo: Waseda University Press, pp. 295–336.Google Scholar
Mori, U (2016) Koreisha no seikatsu shien sabisu kara mita kaigo hoken kaisei to sono hensen [The reform of the Japanese long-term care insurance system and resulting changes in the context of daily living support for older people: from its 2000 introduction to 2014 reform]. Journal of Osaka University of Economics 67, 29–46.Google Scholar
Morikawa, M (2014) Towards community-based integrated care: trends and issues in Japan's long-term care policy. International Journal of Integrated Care 14, e005.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morrow-Howell, N (2010) Volunteering in later life: research frontiers. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 65B, 461–469.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moulaert, T and Biggs, S (2012) International and European policy on work and retirement: reinventing critical perspectives on active ageing and mature subjectivity. Human Relations 66, 23–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Narushima, M (2005) ‘Payback time’: community volunteering among older adults as a transformative mechanism. Ageing & Society 25, 567–584.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Needham, C (2014) Personalization: From day care centres to community hubs? Critical Social Policy 34, 90–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oda, T (2017) Sekando majoriti gurupu to shite no korei sedai no shakaiteki yakuwari to seiji ishiki – sedaikan hikaku kara no kosatsu [Social role and political consciousness of the older generation as a second majority group: some considerations from a generational comparison]. Japanese Journal of Gerontology 38, 445–458.Google Scholar
Official Website of the Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet (2016) Plan for Dynamic Engagement of All Citizens (Provisional). Available at https://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/singi/ichiokusoukatsuyaku/pdf/plan2.pdf.Google Scholar
Pateman, C (1988) The Sexual Contract. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Peng, I (2002) Social care in crisis: gender, demography, and welfare state restructuring in Japan. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 9, 411–443.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pickard, L, Wittenberg, R, Comas-Herrera, A, King, D and Malley, J (2012) Mapping the future of family care: receipt of informal care by older people with disabilities in England to 2032. Social Policy and Society 11, 533–545.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Principi, A, Galenkamp, H, Papa, R, Socci, M, Suanet, B, Schmidt, A, Schulmann, K, Golinowska, S, Sowa, A, Moreira, A and Deeg, DJH (2016) Do predictors of volunteering in older age differ by health status? European Journal of Ageing 13, 91–102.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ryan, GW and Bernard, HR (2003) Techniques to identify themes. Field Methods 15, 85–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saito, Y (2010 a) Care providers in Japan: the potential of and challenges for social enterprises. In Saitō, Y, Auestad, RA and Wærness, K (eds), Meeting the Challenges of Elder Care: Japan and Norway. Kyoto, Japan: Kyoto University Press and Transatlantic Press, pp. 104–127.Google Scholar
Saito, Y (2010 b) Development of home help in Japan: a comparison with Norway. In Saito, Y, Abe, RA and Wærness, K (eds), Meeting the Challenges of Elderly Care: Japan and Norway. Kyoto, Japan: Kyoto University Press and Transatlantic Press, pp. 38–67.Google Scholar
Shinkawa, T (2011) Nihongata kazoku shugi henyo no seijigaku [The politics of the transformation of Japanese style familialism]. In Shinkawa, T (ed.), Fukushi rejimu no shuren to bunki: datsu shohinka to datsu kazokuka no tayosei [The Convergence and Divergence of Welfare Regimes]. Tokyo: Minvera, pp. 309–331.Google Scholar
van Dyk, S, Lessenich, S, Denninger, T and Richter, A (2013) The many meanings of ‘active ageing’. Confronting public discourse with older people's stories. Recherches sociologiques et anthropologiques 44, 97–115.Google Scholar
Walker, A (2018) Why the UK needs a social policy on ageing. Journal of Social Policy 47, 253–273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, A and Maltby, T (2012) Active ageing: a strategic policy solution to demographic ageing in the European Union. International Journal of Social Welfare 21, S117–S130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yanow, D (1995) Editorial: Practices of policy interpretation. Policy Sciences 28, 111–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yanow, D (2000) Conducting Interpretive Policy Analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yin, RK (2014) Case Study Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Young, IM (1990) Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar