One of the most promising conceptual and empirical breakthroughs to emerge from combined anthropological and demographic thinking is the theory of conjunctural action. Developed in a sequence of articles and books by Jennifer Johnson-Hanks, this approach provides an effective alternative to rationalist decision-making models that have prevailed in population studies over the whole post-War period. Observation and analysis of vital conjunctures show how social, economic, and political differences between groups in society are manifested in individual agency at specific points across the life course, and how people’s behaviour in this way differentiates the many subpopulations making up a society. The approach thus addresses directly two major shortcomings in population research: the need to explain mechanisms underlying the evolution of population heterogeneity, and the dynamics that entrench inequalities. To date, the study of conjunctural action has been addressed chiefly to fertility. In this chapter, we explore how health issues facing older people, their families, and communities are illuminated by this approach, drawing on multi-site, longitudinal ethnographic and demographic research in Indonesia. We begin with the nature of uncertainty and vulnerability at older ages, and how it can be modelled across the life course. This leads to consideration of the dynamic relation between individual action and subpopulation memberships, and how it articulates the compositional demography of status, network, ethnic, and related subpopulation memberships.
AGENCY AS IDEOLOGY: PRECARITY AND DISEMBEDDEDNESS IN THE 21ST CENTURY LIFE COURSE