Ageing, Caring and Working: The lived citizenship of working carers approaching their own early old age

This study examines retirement plans and everyday life of working carers born in 1955 or earlier. The study uses interviews conducted in WOCAWO project (Working Carers and Caring Workers – Making paid employment and caring responsibilities compatible) in 2009.

The research project produces new information on the challenges and future prospects of ageing working carers. Are they able to help people close to them by means which coincides their own values, aspirations and retirement plans? What type of changes working carers wish to make in social care services, practices in labour market and their social networks?

The study is conducted 1.1.2010–31.12.2012. It has included a mobility period at the Keele University (15.8.–16.12.2011).

Principal investigator:

Postdoctoral researcher Anu Leinonen, anu.m.leinonen@jyu.fi Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä

Funding:

Academy of Finland (2010–2012)

Collaborators:

WOCAWO Working Carers – Caring Workers project’s (Academy of Finland, 2008–2011) researchers

Keele University, UK (Centre for Social Gerontology, prof. Chris Phillipson)

Selected publications:

Leinonen, Anu (2011) Adult children and parental caregiving: making sense of participation patterns among siblings. Ageing & Society 31 (2), 308–327. doi:10.1017/S0144686X10001042

Leinonen, Anu (2011) Informal family carers and lack of personal time: Descriptions of being outside the sphere of formal help. Nordic Social Work Research 1 (2), 91–108. doi: 10.1080/2156857X.2011.601142

Leinonen, Anu (2011) Masters of their own time? Working carers’ visions of retirement. European Journal of Ageing 8 (4), 243-253. doi:10.1007/s10433-011-0200-x