[ 英文摘要 ]

This research keeps a multi-perspective dialogue with the ‘aging in place’ policies by narrating the real experiences of many elderly people, their families and professional caretakers. The emphasis of life narrative is fluidity. Following the time sequence of age transition and the field metamorphosis, the research is divided into four subjects: the life trajectory of seniors, the social contexts for the relationship between the cared and the caretakers exist; the role of social welfare policy; the discussion of ‘aging in place’.

Firstly, the elderly people lose their social position when they lose their working ability in a capitalist society; as the result, the power structure in the family also changes simultaneously. The elderly move from the lack of identity after retirement to the lack of will after losing the ability to self-nurse. As they get weaker physically, the elderly are forced to accept the nursing service that could be somewhat dehumanizing. Hence, their situation is rather difficult. In this sense, modern people’s final journey in their life trajectory is drifting between different eldercare organizations. Second, under the nursing pattern of standard procedure, record inspection, and in bureaucratic management, the professional eldercare organizations do not serve the elders but the institution itself. The action of caretaking has contradicted from the initial motive of nursery. Due to the lack of an elderly-centered management guidelines and assessment approach, many caretakers’ experience that treat the elderly properly and equally cannot be passed down and develop.

Third, the tripling down type of distribution in social welfare system is separated from the reciprocity in social exchange, as well as the real connection in social relations. Under this kind of social welfare system, the formal caretakers put the focus of their work to the assessment in papers in order to use lower budget to take care of more elderly people. The execution of welfare policies gradually loses the respect and care for the ‘person’. Finally, the ‘aging in place’ policy ignores the definition of space and neglects the existence and meaning of the social network of the elderly as well as their subjectivity and agency. When the elderly lose their right to speak, they also lose their autonomy or even become the exploited under the Welfare Leviathan. Facing the disconnection of the care relations and roaming among the community crowd, they become the local strangers.

This research integrated different data from participant observation, narrative analysis and the society network analysis in attempt to reconstruct the social and cultural patterns of the relationship between elderly people and their caretakers. The researcher argues that old age care concerns not only where and who are the caretakers but also the issues regarding how the elderly and their caretakers interact.