Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables and Figure
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 The Social Designation of Deserving Citizens
- 2 Two Communities, Two Societies
- 3 Rights and Responsibilities in the Public Domain
- 4 The Practice of Protection and Intervention in the Private Domain
- 5 The Japanese Viewpoint
- 6 The American Viewpoint
- 7 Cultural Assumptions and Values
- 8 The Social Regulation of Interests
- 9 Conclusion
- Appendix: Methods of Research
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - The Practice of Protection and Intervention in the Private Domain
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 February 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables and Figure
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 The Social Designation of Deserving Citizens
- 2 Two Communities, Two Societies
- 3 Rights and Responsibilities in the Public Domain
- 4 The Practice of Protection and Intervention in the Private Domain
- 5 The Japanese Viewpoint
- 6 The American Viewpoint
- 7 Cultural Assumptions and Values
- 8 The Social Regulation of Interests
- 9 Conclusion
- Appendix: Methods of Research
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
We were both born and brought up in New Haven. My husband's father had a grocery store. We used to shop in that store as girls. … My husband was born a couple of blocks away from me. … We're basically always together.
- Elsie Bowen (71), former clerical workerIt was an arranged marriage. I was his second wife, so there was a big age difference between us. Some relatives became our go-betweens.
- Sada Kiyo (80), former farmerSECURITY, equity, and self-sufficiency, important to the discussion of the public contract, are also central issues for understanding the private contract in both Japan and the United States. Helping arrangements in the private domain consist of the noninstitutional, informal support offered to the elderly by their family and social networks, which usually includes relatives, friends, neighbors, and acquaintances. These networks of private life are complex, because they are based on the dynamics of life cycle transitions, cohabitation, affection, intimacy, and companionship that lie at the heart of these interdependent relationships. We will explore these dynamics of private helping arrangements here and in the following two chapters. In this chapter, we will explore the conditions of helping arrangements in the two communities by examining the junctures of giving and receiving help at the aggregate level. As we will see, the objective conditions of proximity and the subjective conditions of evaluating vulnerability both play an important role in the practices of social support.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Gift of GenerationsJapanese and American Perspectives on Aging and the Social Contract, pp. 49 - 70Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996