Aging And Caring At The Intersection Of Work And Home Life

This book is a collection of essays that explore the intersection of work and home life with respect to care for older relatives. Contributors from various countries discuss the various ways in which care for older relatives is provided, both in private and public spheres. The book challenges traditional research on care-giving by emphasizing the complex negotiations of care amongst caring networks and across multiple paid care providers. This timely volume produces a novel theoretical approach to care-giving research.

There are not many books that address the boundaries of care of older people from a work-life perspective. This book, authored by contributors from various countries, looks at the boundaries of care by looking at private and public help, professional and personal help and paid and unpaid caregivers. It captures and conceptualizes the complexity of the intersection of work and home life as it relates to the provision of assistance and support to older relatives in a variety of care work contexts. It explores these issues within a critical framework, rather than from an assumed stress or burden perspective, which dominates current texts on the topic. Readers of this volume will gain a deeper understanding of issues of care provision amongst networks of careers and helpers, and of the particular dynamics of care when it is episodic or framed by constrains of space and time as a result of geography. In addition, each chapter addresses issues of diversity with sensitivity to gender, race and ethnicity. This book will be of use to academics and graduate students in Gerontology, Family Studies, IO psychology, Gender Studies and Sociology. Review: I think the international perspective is an especially useful approach in that the increasing number of older adults who will need care and thepermanent connection between caregivers and the work force is indeed a global issue. I commend the authors for gathering such a broad and distinguished group of scholars to address these issues - Kathleen McInnis-Dittrich, Boston College This path-breaking collection provides an innovative approach to understanding the intersections of work-life balance and care-giving for frail older people. It challenges traditional research on care-giving by emphasizing the complex negotiations of care amongst caring networks, and across multiple paid care providers. This timely volume produces a novel theoretical approach to care-giving research. Anne Martin-Matthews and Judith Phillips have assembled a galaxy of the best researchers in aging from six countries to produce a truly international collection. It will advance current thinking in different cultural, social and economic contexts, throwing into sharp relief new ideas about work-life balance, and the family, while also critically addressing issues of gender, race, and ethnicity. This book will become a classic in new research approaches to care-giving - Sara Arber, Centre for Research on Ageing and Gender (CRAG), University of Surrey