Elderly Care in Transition

Work in elderly care in Scandinavia is a principal occupation and a life career, and constitutes an important part of professionalized care work. This sector has over the last decade become a test piece for New Public Management (NPM): It is the area where NPM inspired rationales and methodologies to the greatest extent have been attempted applied. This book explores the challenges and future possibilities in the elderly care from a working life perspective. Eight researchers from the three Scandinavian countries present new studies of the daily work in elderly care, the change of tasks and services, and the reconstruction of a semi-profession. The specific translation of NPM into the Scandinavian context is described in the book, and it is examined how this affects: Meaning and identity of work in elderly care, and possibilities to reconstruct meaning under standardized working conditions. New ideals of line management of elderly care and ambiguities between bureaucracy and professionalism. Subjectivity and emotions as a decisive element of the work in elderly care. The creation of new professionalism in pockets of the sector. The shifts in valuation of experience based knowledge and care orientation. The book draws attention to new trends in the sector that may give the way for transgressing the logic of NPM, and thus points to possibilities to enrich working life.