Call for Papers
 
Background
Since the 1980s elderly care has been subject to welfare state restructuring across many countries. Demographic and socio-economic changes have challenged the existing forms of and policy approaches to elderly care. At the same time, transformations of this kind have emerged against the background of fundamental criticisms of the welfare state and persistent economic constraints. Significantly, such transformations are also closely connected to transnational flows of ideas and best practices, but which have to be adapted within national frameworks and at local levels.
 
More specifically, the transformation of elderly care occurs in relation to a number of dimensions. There is a restructuring of formal care delivery, often prompted by New Public Management reforms, and this restructuring includes the reshuffling of the interplay between different sectors of service provision, especially informal care. Such restructuring processes are embedded in local and national contexts, which are often specific to individual countries. The interplay between the two contexts itself is changing in the face of demands for greater public accountability and for locally tailored services. The transformations of the formal/informal and the local/national interfaces also impact on care workers. For example, the introduction of different kinds of cash benefits affects the division of labour with informal family care. The transnational migration of care workers adds a new dimension to ongoing transformations and to varying degrees offers a ‘private solution’ to changes in societies and associated care dilemmas. Importantly, national care regimes ­- with their specific constellation of ideas, institutions and stakeholders - act as a filter for the effect of migration
 
The conference
Elderly care is clearly undergoing fundamental transformations. How such transformations are playing out in practice remains unclear, thus necessitating further theoretical and empirical investigation. The conference explores the dynamics and contexts of these transformations through a number of key themes:
 
  • New interfaces between formal and informal elderly care
  • Shifting local and national contexts of elderly care
  • Changes in elderly care and implications for care workers
  • Elderly care, migration and national care regimes
 
Keynote speakers
Keynote speakers include Dr. Giovanni Lamura (Italy), Prof. Caroline Glendinning (UK), Prof. Dr. Birgit Pfau-Effinger (Germany) and Prof. Marta Szebehely (Sweden).

Submission of abstract
We invite papers who address dynamics and contexts of transformations related to changes in elderly care either in a single country or in a comparative perspective. All disciplines are welcome. We especially encourage submissions from PhD students. The deadline for submitting an abstract of no more than 250 words is 30 January 2008.

To submit your abstract, see Submission of abstract 
 
People will be notified whether their abstracts have been accepted by 1 April 2008

For papers to be included in the session programme, please submit full papers no later than 1 June 2008 to transformingcare@sfi.dk

For more information, contact transformingcare@sfi.dk 
 
The final programme will be published on www.sfi.dk/transformingcare 5 June 2008
 
Organized by
Dr. Viola Burau
University of Aarhus, Denmark
Dr. Tine Rostgaard
The  Danish National Institute of Social Research, Denmark
Prof. Hildegard Theobald
University of Vechta, Germany
The German Sociological Association, Section 'Ageing and Society'.

Location
Eigtveds Pakhus, Asiatisk Plads 2G
DK-1448 Copenhagen K Denmark