Understanding Care Giving and Care Receiving Experiences throughout the Life Course: A Comparative Study of Older Couples in Denmark and Japan

The systems of providing welfare services interact with older people’s everyday lives in a very complex way. Not only the arrangements of systems as such but also the availability of services influence their possibilities and constraints at an everyday level and shape what roles they play within the social network of their everyday lives. These interactions are long-term changing processes as both the systems and wide-ranging conditions in everyday life are neither static nor immutable. In particular, the present paper draws attention to how older people understand the ways that the welfare systems interact with their everyday lives throughout the life course. Older people’s understandings of their interaction with the welfare systems at the everyday level reflect upon both their past and present experiences and practices, and this reflection results in forming a significant part of their views and expectations for the future.
Guided by life course approach, the analysis focuses on older couples in Denmark and Japan, and explores the following questions; how have older Danish and Japanese couples experienced care giving and care taking over the life course? How do they perceive these experiences? How have older Danish and Japanese couples experienced mutual support and communication with children, grandchildren, parents, neighbours and friends? How do their understandings exert influence on the forming of expectations and views for the future? The empirical core of the analysis is the qualitative data derived from semi-structured in-depth interviews with couples aged 65 and over in Denmark and Japan. The interviews are ongoing and will be concluded by February 2014.