Aging and Caring at the Intersection of Work and Home Life : Blurring the Boundaries

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.

Anne Martin-Matthews is a Professor of Sociology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. She is also Scientific Director of the Institute of Aging, one of 13 national institutes of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

She is the author of Widowhood in Later Life, and over 150 academic papers on aging, carework, families and health; recent publications examine care management versus care provision (Ageing and Society, 2007); crisis episodes in care (Journal of Applied Gerontology, 2008) and situating home care at the nexus of the private and the public spheres (Current Sociology, 2007). Anne is Vice-President of the Research Committee on Aging of the International Sociological Association, a member of the editorial board of Journal of Aging Studies and an overseas advisor for Ageing and Society. She is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

Judith Phillips is Professor of Social Work and Gerontology and Head of the School of Human Sciences at Swansea University. She is also Director of the Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Ageing and the co-director of the Older People and Ageing Research and Development Network in Wales.

Her research interests are in environments of ageing, social work and social care and include housing and retirement communities, family and kinship networks, carework and older offenders. Her recent publications include: Concepts of Care (Polity Press); Social Work with Older People (Palgrave); Women Ageing (Routledge); and The Family and Community Life of Older People (Routledge). Judith is Series Editor for ‘Ageing and the Lifecourse’ (The Policy Press) and is President Elect of the British Society of Gerontology as well as a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America.