Aging, Care and Globalization

Coordinator: Mika Toyota, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology

Project Description and Scope

Population ageing and its implications for eldercare provision are major social and policy challenges for the world in general including Asia. Ageing has so far been primarily construed as a demographic phenomenon and usually understood and analyzed through a national lens. This reading group aims to broaden our perspective by examining how ageing and care provision for the elderly has been discussed as a social, cultural, and political phenomenon across a wide range of literature.

We will pay special attention to:

1. International comparisons (e.g. what does eldercare mean in different societies and cultures? how does it intersect with gender ideology?)
2. The transnational implications of ageing (e.g. how does ageing in one country affect the supply of care labor in another? what are the motivations and patterns of retirement migration?)
3. The impact of globalization on eldercare provision (e.g. how is elder care provision being commodified and transnationalised? what is the nature of state-market relations in the realms of health care and eldercare provision?).

Discussion in this reading group will help prepare for the conference on ‘Toward a Transnational Care Regime: State, Market and Family in Transnational Mobilities for Care in Asia’, jointly organized by the Changing Family Cluster and the Asian Migration Cluster at Asia Research Institute. (10-11 September 2009) The key themes of the conference are 1) changing family and care provision, 2) transnational healthcare work, 3) transnational retirement migration, 4) medical tourism.

Initial Reading List

  • Hochschild, A. (2000), Global care chains and emotional surplus value, in W. Hutton and A. Giddens, (eds), On the edge: Living with global capitalism, London: Jonathan Cape
  • Huck-ju Kwon,(2005) 'Transforming the developmental welfare state in East Asia' UNRISD Social Policy and Development Paper, No. 22
  • Hugo, G. (2006), Contextualising the “crisis in aged care” in Australia: A demographic perspective, First Draft of a paper for presentation to the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia Workshop, 10-11 April 2006
  • Raghuram, P. (2008) Caring about ‘brain drain’ migration in a postcolonial world. Geoforum, (in press)
  • Saskia, S. (2002), Global cities and survival circuits, in B. Ehrenreich and A. Horschild (eds), Global woman: nannies, maids, and sex workers in the new economy, New York: Metropolitan Books
  • Turner, J. (2002) Social Security in Asian and the Pacific: A Brief Overview, Journal of Aging and Social Policy, 14(1):95-104
  • Yeates, N. (2004), Global care chains: Critical reflections and lines of enquiry, International Feminist Journal of Politics, 6(3): 369-391
  • Zimmerman, M., Litt, J. and Bose, C. (2006), Global dimensions of gender and carework, California: Stanford University Press

Meeting Schedule and Events

Venue: FASS Faculty Lounge
Time: Monday afternoon 4pm
Frequency: Once every three weeks

20 Oct 2008
Planning meeting 4pm at Faculty Lounge

10 Nov 2008
led by Mika Toyota : concept of ‘Global Care Chains’

15 Dec. 2008, 3pm
External Speaker: Dr. Buchan, James, WHO project on international mobility of Nurse
"International recruitment of health professionals to the UK- Will "new" Europe replace the "old" empire?”

Jan 2009
led by Phua Kai Hong

Feb-Aug - Details to be advised

When we have outside speakers, we will organize joint seminars with another reading group, 'The Deconstruction and Reconstitution of the Intimate within the Context of Mobilities and Migration' (Principal Investigator: A/P Tracey Skelton, Dept of Geography) that share some research interest with ours.

Planned external speakers:

  • A/P Pei-Chia Lan, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, National Taiwan University
  • Dr. Vivienne Wee, Associate Director, SEARC and Associate Professor, Department of Asian and International Studies, City University of Hong Kong

List of Participants

  • Mika TOYOTA, Department of Sociology (mikatoyota@nus.edu.sg)
  • Brenda YEOH, Department of Geography
  • CHEE Heng Leng, Asia Research Institute
  • Gavin JONES, Department of Sociology
  • Jean YEUNG WEI-JUN, Department of Sociology
  • Joonmo SON, Department of Sociology
  • Paulin STRAUGHAN, Department of Sociology
  • Phua Kai Hong, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
  • Shirlena HUANG, Department of Geography
  • THANG Leng Leng, Department of Japanese studies
  • YAP Mui Teng, Institute of Policy Studies
  • Zhou Wei (graduate student), Department of Sociology