Reconstructing dependency: precarity, precariousness and care in old age

This chapter explores the potential for the development of critical approach to care based on the concepts of precarity and precariousness. Applying those concepts at the level of both theory and analysis, it is argued, serves to draw attention to both the socially constructed uncertainties of care provision conditioned by the labour market and corporate practices on the one hand, and the uncertainties of physical ageing and the ontological vulnerabilities that arise from our bodily existence on the other. Uncertainty also confronts those who provide care in either a paid or unpaid/informal capacity. The precarious conditions of work reflect the financial fragility of the economic supports and the changing and unequal markets that increasingly underpin the way care is provided to the increasing numbers of people who live extended lives today.

A framework to identify precarity in the social sciences: insights from qualitative research

This chapter proposes a framework for identifying and recognising precarity based on qualitative research. It begins with a discussion of the context for precarity from the vantage point of the author’s background and broader theoretical influences. Next, challenges associated with recognizing and measuring precarity are presented. The chapter then turns to the methods used to detect precarity in two research studies, with a focus on four markers of precarity: uncertainty; limited access to appropriate services; the importance of maintaining independence, and; cumulative pressures. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the contribution made from the research studies as a means to inform future research.

Precarious life, human development and the life course: critical intersections

This chapter explores the critical intersections between ageing, human development, and the life course as precarious forms of life. The first part reviews the literature on global precarity and the endangerment of liveability in relation to ageing populations, with a focus on neoliberal strategies that naturalise and individualise risky life-course trajectories and health crises. The second part examines selected figures of the obese child, unstable adolescent, despairing mid-lifer, and cognitively impaired older adult as examples of crisis-laden personifications of social problems. Data are drawn from historical texts, popular images and professional knowledges. Conclusions revisit the work of Butler and Foucault to raise questions about current models of resilience and the possibilities of resistance and living differently.

Rereading frailty through a lens of precarity: an explication of politics and the human condition of vulnerability

Over the last 15 years, frailty has emerged as one of the most powerful constructs in gerontology, geriatrics, and health care delivery. Yet the dominant portrayal and response to frailty tends to mask that frailty is experienced by older people and is historically situated. This chapter suggests that the lens of precarity can be used to focus on the risks and insecurities experienced by older people and convey complex understandings of need in late life. It outlines key lines of thinking with regards to frailty and sketches emerging work on precarity with regards to aging. It then points to two angles to reconsider ‘frailty’ in late life: the politics of frailty, and vulnerability as a means to resituate the response to ‘frail’ subjects. It follows this by outlining the contributions that can be made through an analysis of precarity and concludes with suggestions for theoretical and methodological development.

Conclusion: Precarity and ageing in the 21st century

The chapter summarises the importance of ideas associated with precarity and precariousness for understanding later life. The discussion is framed within the context of the development of critical gerontology. The chapter considers how the concept of precarity extends our understanding of the range of insecurities faced in later life. It also considers how the example of a human rights perspective can be used to challenge some of the vulnerabilities experienced by older people.

From precarious employment to precarious retirement: neoliberal health and long-term care in the United States

Neoliberal political economies have emerged across the west over the last 40 years. This development has been driven by several forces including public policy regimes that prioritize privatization of public assets and services, deregulation of the economy, reduced taxes on high incomes and wealth and use of public revenues to bail out corporate entities that are “too big to fail”. This chapter draws on Streeck’s theory of the Consolidation State dominated by corporate priorities. It describes how neoliberal policy priorities, especially privatization, are being implemented in the health and long term care systems in the U.S, and how these are in turn creating the same levels of economic insecurity and precarity in the context of work and retirement over the last 20 plus years.

Austerity and precarity: individual and collective agency in later life

The chapter examines both the context for the rise of precarity in the lives of older people as well as responses and alternative areas of practice. The chapter reviews the link between precarity and changes in the welfare state and austerity policies imposed by governments in the Global North. These developments are linked to the influence of neo-liberal policies with their emphasis on individual responsibility for managing transitions through the life course. The chapter then considers the basis for ‘collective’ forms of agency, underpinned by a recognition of issues concerning the provision of universal basic services, substantive equality and collective engagement on the part of older people.

Precarity, migration and ageing

The profile of older adults in the Global North is changing rapidly with increasing proportions of foreign-born ageing populations. Despite their demographic significance, very little research has been conducted on the complex and varied experiences of ageing, risk, and insecurity in this group, particularly with regard to significant life course events such as migration. Using the conceptual lens of precarity, this chapter presents a nuanced analysis of risk and vulnerability in the context of ageing and migration. We begin with a brief overview of the key economic, psychosocial, and cultural markers of precarity in older immigrants. Next, we highlight the ‘politics of precarity’ inherent in the larger political economy of immigration and the invisibility of racialized older immigrants in health and social care policies. We conclude with a discussion on the challenges to understanding precarity in the context of migration, and provide suggestions for future research.

Precarity and ageing: new perspectives for social gerontology

The chapter sets the foundation for the exploration of precarity and aging from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, critical perspectives, and contexts. It begins by outlining the concept of precarity and precariousness in fields such as geography and labour studies, examines how the concept has been applied to late life, and considers its relevance to the field of ageing. It establishes precarity as lens for drawing attention to insecurity and risk in later life. The chapter then poses a series of questions to guide reflection and ground the debates pursued by authors throughout the book, followed by a brief overview of the chapters ahead.

How life course dynamics matter for precarity in later life

Precarity is at the heart of human experience. In every period of life, all people would seem to face some minimal types and levels of precarity simply in being alive and in having to navigate an ever-changing world. At the same time, precarity is particularistic: some kinds of precarity may be unique in different periods of life, and some people and groups have more of it, or more serious types, than others. To understand the sources and consequences of precarity in later life, it is important to understand the life course: how individuals’ past experiences affect later ones, and how social forces open and close opportunities and structure pathways through life. A life course perspective helps reveal where, when, how, and for whom precarity occurs, and what legacies it carries in the lives of individuals, families, and societies. The chapter covers 12 key lessons about how life course dynamics matter in creating, minimizing, or eliminating the precarity of ageing.