Empowering the Elderly? - How 'Help to Self-Help' Health Interventions Shape Ageing and Eldercare in Denmark

Health programmes that offer 'help to self-help' are meant to empower ageing adults to remain independent and self-sufficient at home for as long as possible. But what happens when the private home becomes a political realm in which state intervention and individual agency happen simultaneously? Based on 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork in a Danish municipality, Amy Clotworthy describes how both health professionals and elderly citizens negotiate the political discourses about health and ageing that frame their relational encounter. By elucidating some of the conflicts, paradoxes, and negotiations that occur, she provides important insights into the contemporary organisation of eldercare.

Summary

Health programmes that offer ›help to self-help‹ are meant to empower ageing adults to remain independent and self-sufficient at home for as long as possible. But what happens when the private home becomes a political realm in which state intervention and individual agency happen simultaneously? Based on 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork in a Danish municipality, Amy Clotworthy describes how both health professionals and elderly citizens negotiate the political discourses about health and ageing that frame their relational encounter. By elucidating some of the conflicts, paradoxes, and negotiations that occur, she provides important insights into the contemporary organisation of eldercare.

Product details

• Authors: Amy Clotworthy
• Publisher: Transcript
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.07.2020
• EAN: 9783837652116
• ISBN: 978-3-8376-5211-6
• No. of pages: 262
• Dimensions: 147 mm x 226 mm x 15 mm
• Weight: 666 g
• Illustrations: 6 schw.-w. Abb.
• Series: Aging Studies
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Humanities (general); Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Political sociology; Krankenpflege, Soziologie, Sozialwissenschaften, Soziologie, Soziale Probleme, Sozialarbeit, Reablement, Care, Health Initiatives, Body, Cultural Studies, Medicine, Aging Studies, Denmark, Qualitative Social Research, Eldercare, Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography, Ageing, Sociology and anthropology, Culture and institutions, Social problems and services, Groups of people, Medicine and health