ELDERWISE
ELDERWISE seeks new pathways for elderly care in Greece
Welcome to ELDERWISE, a three-year research project that seeks new pathways for elderly care in Greece.
- Population ageing: More elderly people, fewer children, and increasing caregiving responsibilities.
- Low recognition: Elderly care is the most undervalued form of care, as it does not concern individuals of “productive” age.
- Institutional complexity: The state, the market, civil society, and the family all play roles with blurred boundaries between them. In Greece, institutional gaps and fragmentation are consistently observed.
- Gender inequalities: Women provide most of the care, with fewer resources and less support.
- Global care chains: Home-based elderly care is largely provided by migrant women, who are often underpaid and lack rights.
The Social and Solidarity Economy offers a framework for redefining social reproduction and care beyond the logic of profit maximization, potentially prioritizing the empowerment of caregivers (often migrant women), the comprehensive support of the elderly and their families, and the creation of a shared care ecosystem.
ELDERWISE aims to highlight this dynamic through theoretical analysis, empirical research, and the formulation of policy proposals that will breathe new life into social policy for the elderly in Greece.
Social Reproduction
The “embodied, messy, and indeterminate stuff of everyday life” (Katz, 2001: 711). “Social reproduction … refers both to the biological reproduction of the species (and indeed within its ecological context) and to the ongoing reproduction of the commodity labor power. Moreover, social reproduction encompasses the institutions, processes, and social relations associated with the creation and maintenance of communities, upon which all production and exchange ultimately depend” (Bakker & Gill, 2003: 17–18).
Care
“A species activity that includes everything that we do to maintain, continue, and repair our ‘world’ so that we can live in it as well as possible. That world includes our bodies, ourselves, and our environment, all of which we seek to interweave in a complex, life-sustaining web” (Fisher and Tronto, 1990: 40).
Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE)
An ethical and value-based approach to the economy that prioritizes the well-being of people and the planet. It envisions a system that is not only economic but also sociopolitical and cultural, placing the processes that sustain life at the center of socioeconomic activity and giving precedence to people, communities, and the environment over capital and its accumulation (RIPESS).
Implementing Agency
Collaborating Organizations
The project is implemented with funding from the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation within the framework of the ‘3rd Call for Research Projects for the Support of Faculty Members and Researchers’.