engleski

Who’s “Making a Wish” and for What – Reconfiguring the Role of State in Croatian Systems for Elderly Care

As is the case in most of Europe, the system of elderly care in Croatia has relied on combining traditional state provided care, state supported care in the family and the market provided care. In the last two decades of Europeanization and accension to the EU, and being a postsocialist state, Croatia has been continuously working to deinstitutionalize social policy from its strong tradition of social state to a state regulated care done by non-state actors: families, communities, and private businesses. The process successfully reflects the European Union’s paradigm shift in social politics and ethics since entering the so-called “post-neoliberal” phase of working towards social inclusion based on social investments in the human capital. The shift has been characterized by moving away from the idea of the state being an ethical agent and provider of personal and collective well-being to a state regulating social politics through the lenses of economic growth. In the last five years, Croatia spent a significant portion of EU provided resources for social policy on the program “Zaželi” (“Make a Wish”) which aims to secure informal elderly care in rural communities by employing women who are projected as unlikely to successfully compete in the labor market because of age, education and general socioeconomic background. The aim of the program is twofold as it functions both as an employment and elderly care policy. The program falls in line with other social policies being developed in the EU which all remain uncritical of its gendered structure as they continue to exploit women as main providers of care work. The presentation will give a critical overview of the program, focusing on its organizational and practical implementation, and provide a research proposal for a single case study of looking into multilayered gendered aspects of elderly care which are being enacted in the community implementing the program.

role of state ; elderly care ; gendered labour ; social policy

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