It Takes Another Kind of Village: How Older Husbands in Rural Spanish Communities Experience Caregiving
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5195/aa.2023.441Keywords:
Husband caregiving, Community care, Belonging, Ageing, Rural communities, SpainAbstract
This article explores how older husbands’ caregiving experiences are interwoven with the social representation of ‘the village,’ understood herein as an intimate, local community that actively contributes to long-term care on a daily basis. The concepts of belonging and doing kinship form the analytical basis for illuminating this interaction between care from husbands and daily community care. I use the social representation of the imagined community both as the axis for articulating the singular experiences of care, and the construct of a village that values its collective history, local rituals, natural environment, and ordinary routines. Study data are based on ethnographic observations of the daily long-term care trajectories of five married couples in two villages and one small town in the rural Spanish Mediterranean.
References
Aartsen, Marja J., Theo Van Tilburg, Carolien Smits, and Kees Knipscheer. 2004. “A Longitudinal Study of the Impact of Physical and Cognitive Decline on the Personal Network in Old Age.” Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 21 (2): 249-266.
Anderson, Benedict. 1991. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.
Argos. 2023. Portal d’Informació. Generalitat Valenciana “Banc de Dates Municipals.” Accessed July 18, 2023. http://www.argos.gva.es/bdmun/pls/argos_mun/DMEDB_UTIL.INDEXV
Benedict, Zachary. 2019. “Retrofitting Small Towns: How Aging in Place Could Transform Rural America.” In The Global Age-Friendly Community Movement. A Critical Appraisal, edited by Philip B. Stafford, 211-228. New York: Berghahn Books.
Bodoque, Yolanda, and Jesús Sanz. 2022. “Iniciativas Comunitarias en Tiempos de la Covid-19.” In Cuidar a Mayores y Dependientes. En Tiempos de Covid-19, edited by Dolors Comas-d’Argemir and Sílvia Bofill-Poch, 365-422. Valencia: Tirant lo Blanch.
Bofill-Poch, Sílvia, and Carmen Gregorio Gil. 2021. “‘Tú No Tienes Donde Ir (Y Yo Sí)’. De Cómo el Miedo al Contagio Impacta en las Trabajadoras Migrantes Empleadas en el Hogar.” Migraciones 53: 143-170.
Bofill-Poch, Sílvia, and Raúl Márquez. 2020. “Indefensión, Injusticia y Merecimiento en el Colectivo de Trabajadoras del Hogar: Análisis de Casos Judicializados.” Etnográfica 24 (1): 225-244.
Burholt, Vanessa, and Christine Dobbs. 2012. “Research on Rural Ageing: Where Have We Got to and Where Are We Going in Europe?” Journal of Rural Studies 28: 432-446.
Carrasco, Cristina, Cristina Borderías, and Teresa Torns. 2011. El Trabajo de Cuidados. Historia, Teoría y Políticas. Madrid: Catarata.
Carsten, Janet. 2005. After Kinship. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cattan, Mima. 2002. Supporting Older People to Overcome Social Isolation and Loneliness. London: Help the Aged.
Chapman, Sherry Ann, and Sheila Peace. 2008. “Rurality and Ageing Well: ‘A Long Time Here’.” In Rural Ageing: A good Place to Grow Old?, edited by Norah C. Keating, 21-31. Bristol: Bristol University.
Chapman, Tony. 2004. Gender and Domestic Life. Changing Practices in Families and Households. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Chirinos, Carlos. 2021a “Cuando los Hombres Cuidan... Cuando los Hombres Mayores Cuidan. Experiencias de Cuidado Conyugal en Contextos de Enfermedad y Discapacidad.” PhD diss., Universitat Rovira i Virgili.
-----. 2021b. “Del Cuidado Familiar al Cuidado Comunitario: Reflexiones acerca de una Iniciativa Local de Cuidados en Contextos de Discapacidad y Envejecimiento.” In El Cuidado de Mayores y Dependientes. Avanzando hacia la Igualdad de Género y Justicia Social, edited by Dolors Comas-d’Argemir and Sílvia Bofill-Poch, 293-311. Barcelona: Icaria.
Collantes, Fernando, and Vicente Pinilla. 2019. ¿Lugares que No Importan?: La Despoblación de la España Rural desde 1900 hasta el Presente. Zaragoza: Universidad de Zaragoza.
Comas-d’Argemir, Dolors, and Montserrat Soronellas. 2019. “Men as Carers in Long-Term Caring: Doing Gender and Going Kinship.” Journal of Family Issues 40 (3): 315-339.
Comas-d’Argemir, Dolors, Natalia Alonso, and Blanca Deusdad. 2018. “Des Maris qui Soignent leurs Epouses Agées. Genre, Générations et Politiques Publiques en Catalogne.” Ethnologie Française 3: 451-464.
Comas-d’Argemir, Dolors. 2016. “Hombres Cuidadores: Barreras de Género Y Modelos Emergentes.” Psicoperspectivas 15 (3): 10-22.
Conlon, Catherine, Virpi Timonen, Gemma Carney, and Thomas Scharf. 2014. “Women (Re)Negotiating Care Across Family Generations: Intersections of Gender and Socioeconomic Status.” Gender and Society 28 (5): 729-751.
Daly, Tamara, and Gordon Grant. 2008. “Crossing Borders: Lifecourse, Rural Ageing and Disability.” In Rural Ageing: A Good Place to Grow Old?, edited by Norah C. Keating, 11-20. Bristol: Bristol University.
Dobbs, Bonnie, and Laurel Strain. 2008. “Staying Connected: Issues of Mobility of Older Rural Adults.” In Rural Ageing. A Good Place to Grow Old?, edited by Norah C. Keating, 87-96. Bristol: Bristol University.
Emerson, Robert, Rachael Fretz, and Linda Shaw. 2011. Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Esteban, Mari Luz. 2017. “Los Cuidados, un Concepto Central en la Teoría Feminista: Aportaciones, Riesgos y Diálogos con la Antropología.” Quaderns-e de l’Institut Català d’Antropologia 22 (2): 33-48.
Gabauer, Angelika. 2022. Care and the City: Encounters with Urban Studies. Routledge.
Garung, Regan, Shelly Taylor, and Teresa Sheeman. 2003. “Accounting for Changes in Social Support among Married Older Adults: Insights from the Macarthur Studies of Successful Aging.” Psychology and Aging 18 (3): 487-96.
Gee, Ellen M. 2000. “Population and Politics: Voodoo Demography, Population Aging, and Canadian Social Policy.” In The Overselling of Population Ageing: Apocalyptic Demography, Intergenerational Challenges, and Social Policy, edited by Ellen M. Ge, and Gloria M. Gutman, 5-25. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gusman, Alessandro. 2018. “Mourir Chez Soi. Le Cas de la Médicalisation du Domicile en Italie.” Ethnologie Française 3: 503-514.
Häberlein, Tabea. 2018. “Changing Age-Inscriptions and Stable Norms in Three Villages in Rural West Africa.” Anthropology and Aging 39 (1): 33-47.
Haraway, Donna. 2008. When Species Meet. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Hart, L. Gary, Eric H. Larson, and Denise M. Lishner. 2005. “Rural Definitions for Health Policy and Research.” American Journal of Public Health 95 (7): 1149-55.
Horton, Marion. 2005. “Rural Crisis, Good Practice and Community Development Responses.” Community Development Journal 40 (4): 425-32.
Ingold, Tim. 2011. Being Alive: Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description. Oxford: Routledge.
Instituto Nacional de Estadística-INE. 2019.“Padrón. Población por Municipios.” Accessed September 15, 2022. https://www.ine.es/dyngs/INEbase/categoria.htm?c=Estadistica_P&cid=1254734710990
Keating, Norah C. 2008. “Revisiting Rural Ageing in Rural Ageing. A Good Place to Grow Old?” In Rural Ageing. A Good Place to Grow Old?, edited by Norah C. Keating, 121-130. Bristol: Bristol University.
Keating, Norah C., and Judith Phillips. 2008. “A Critical Human Ecology Perspective on Rural Ageing.” In Rural Ageing. A Good Place to Grow Old?, edited by Norah C. Keating, 1-10. Bristol: Bristol University.
Klijn, Jan Adriaan, L. A. E. Vullings, R. J. A. van Lammeren, H. Van Meijl, T. van Rheenen, A. Veldkamp, P. H. Verburg, H. Westhoek, B. Eickhout, and A. A. Tabeau. 2005. The EURURALIS Study: Technical Document, No. 1196. Wageningen: Alterra.
Lynch, Catherine, and Jason Danely. 2013. “Transitions and Transformations: Paradigms, Perspectives, and Possibilities.” In Transitions and Transformations. Cultural Perspective on Aging and the Life Course, edited by Catherine Lynch and Jason Danely, 3-20. Oxford: Bergham.
Merwin, Elizabeth, Audrey Snyder, and Elizabeth Katz. 2006. “Differential Access to Quality Rural Healthcare: Professional and Policy Challenges.” Family and Community Health 29 (3): 186-94.
Milligan, Christine. 2005. “From Home To ‘Home’: Situating Emotions within the Caregiving Experience.” Environment and Planning A 37, (12): 2105-2120.
Milligan, Christine. 2014. “Geographies of Care.” In The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Health, Illness, Behavior, and Society, edited by William C. Cockerham, Robert Dingwall, and Stella R. Quah, 1-3. New York: Wiley-Blackwell.
Mills, Melinda. 2000. “Providing Space for Time: The Impact of Temporality on Life Course Research.” Time and Society 9 (1): 91-127.
Panelli, Ruth, and Richard Welch. 2005. “Why Community? Reading Difference and Singularity with Community.” Environment and Planning A 37 (9): 1589-611.
Pasveer, Bernike, Oddgeir Synnes, and Ingunn Moser. 2020. Ways of Home Making in Care for Later Life. Palgrave Macmillan.
Pauli Julia, and Franziska Bedorf. 2018. “Retiring Home? House Construction, Age Inscriptions, and the Building of Belonging among Mexican Migrants and their Families in Chicago and Rural Mexico.” Anthropology and Aging 39 (1): 48-65.
Place Chloë. 2022. “Fiestas, Saints and Spirituality: Collective Rituals as Community Eldercare in Andalusia.” Anthropology & Aging 43 (2): 1-23.
Pérez-Orozco, Amaia. 2006. “Amenaza Tormenta: La Crisis de los Cuidados y la Reorganización del Sistema Económico.” Revista de Economía Crítica 5: 8-37.
Razavi, Shahra. 2007. “The Political and Social Economy of Care in a Development Context.” Gender and Development Programme Paper. UNIRISD, Number 3, June. https://cdn.unrisd.org/assets/library/papers/pdf-files/razavi-paper.pdf
Ribeiro, Oscar, Constança Paúl, and Conceição Nogueira. 2007. “Real Men, Real Husbands: Caregiving and Masculinities in Later Life.” Journal of Aging Studies 21 (4): 302-313.
Rico, María, and Olga Segovia. 2017. ¿Quién Cuida en la Ciudad?: Aportes para Políticas Urbanas de Igualdad. CEPAL.
Sacchi, Paola, and Pier Viazzo. 2018. “Families and the Elderly along the Shores of the Mediterranean: Old and New Forms of Relatedness.” Ethnologie Française 3: 427-438.
Sahlins, Marshal. 2013. What Kinship Is-and Is Not. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Salamon, Sonya. 2003. “From Hometown to Nontown: Rural Community Effects of Suburbanization.” Rural Sociology 68 (1): 1-24.
Shenk, Dena. 2001. “Intergenerational Family Relationships of Older Women in Central Minnesota.” Ageing and Society 21: 591-603.
Soronellas, Montserrat, Dolors Comas-d'Argemir, and Natalia Alonso. 2021. “Hombres que Deciden Cuidar a Personas Adultas Dependientes en el Contexto Familiar. Género y Parentesco en Transformación.” Revista Arxiu d'Etnografia de Catalunya, 22: 211-235.
Soronellas, Montserrat, Dolors Comas-d'Argemir, and Xavier Roigé. 2020. “New Families, New Aging, New Care. Rethinking Kinship through the Involvement of Men in Family Care.” In Espaces Pluriels de la Parenté: Approches Ethnographiques des (Re)Configurations Intimes et Publiques dans le Monde Contemporain, edited by Alice Sarcinell, Fanny Duysens, and Elodie Razy, 23-37. Louvain-la-Neuve: Academia L'Harmattan.
Spinney, Justin. 2006. “A Place of Sense: A Kinaesthetic Ethnography of Cyclists on Mont Vetoux.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 24: 709-732.
Stafford, Philip. 2019. The Global Age-Friendly Community Movement. A Critical Appraisal. New York: Berghahn Books.
Suzuki, Nanami. 2019. “Creating an Age-Friendly Community in a Depopulated Town in Japan: A Search for Resilient Ways to Cherish New Commons as Local Cultural Resources.” In The Global Age-Friendly Community Movement. A Critical Appraisal, edited by Philip Stafford, 229-248. New York: Berghahn Books.
Synnes, Oddgeir and Arthur W. Frank. 2020. “Home as Cultural Imaginary at the End of Life.” In Ways of Home Making in Care for Later Life, edited by Bernike Pasveer, Oddgeir Synnes, and Ingunn Moser, 19-40. Palgrave Macmillan.
Thelen, Tatjana. 2015. “Care as Social Organization: Creating, Maintaining and Dissolving Significant Relations.” Anthropological Theory 15 (4): 497-515.
Tilley, Christopher. 1994. A Phenomenology of Landscape: Places, Paths and Monuments. Oxford: Berg.
Tinker, Anthea. 2002. “The Social Implications of an Ageing Population.” Mechanisms of Ageing and Development 123 (7): 729-735.
Tronto, Joan C. 1993. Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument for an Ethic of Care. London: Routledge.
United Nations. 2019. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. World Population Ageing 2019: Highlights. Accessed September 12, 2022. https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/publications/pdf/ageing/WorldPopulationAgeing2019-Highlights.pdf
Van Vleet, Krista. 2003. “Partial Theories: On Gossip, Envy and Ethnography in the Andes.” Ethnography 4 (4): 491-519.
Wackers, Ger. 2020. “Making a Place for Dying at Home: Liminality, Territoriality and Care at the End of Life.” In Ways of Home Making in Care for Later Life, edited by Bernike Pasveer, Oddgeir Synnes, and Ingunn Moser, 227-248. Palgrave Macmillan.
Weicht, Bernhard. 2015. The Meaning of Care. The Social Construction of Care for Elderly People. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Wenger, G. Clare, and Norah C. Keating. 2008. “The Evolution of Networks of Rural Older Adults.” In Rural Ageing: A Good Place to Grow Old?, edited by Norah C. Keating, 33-42. Bristol: Bristol University.
West, Candance, and Don Zimmerman. 1987. “Doing Gender.” Gender and Society 1 (2): 125-151.
Williams, Allison M., and Malcolm P. Cutchin. 2002. “The Rural Context of Health Care Provision.” Journal of Interprofessional Care 16 (2): 107-15.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Carlos Chirinos
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
- Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
- The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
- Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
- The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
- Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
- The Author represents and warrants that:
- the Work is the Author’s original work;
- the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
- the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
- the Work has not previously been published;
- the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
- the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
- The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.
Revised 7/16/2018. Revision Description: Removed outdated link.
