31: From the welfare triangle to the care square: family, state, market and community care for older people

Abstract

This chapter focuses on welfare sociology, which has analysed the roles of the family, the state, the market and the community as providers of care for older people. This strand of research has been influenced by feminist social policy scholarship and has become a key area of welfare state research since the 1990s. The importance and continuing relevance of the ‘welfare triangle’, which highlights the division of responsibilities between the state, the market and the family, as a framework for this research is discussed, as is its extension to a ‘care diamond’, which the chapter suggests should be replaced by the concept of a ‘care square’. As the provision of the four sectors becomes increasingly mixed and intertwined, it also introduces the novel concept of ‘hybrid care’. Given the ongoing rapid population ageing, this area of research is likely to remain active for decades to come.