Collaboration: Challenges of a Cantonal Reform in Ageing Policy
Gfeller, Fabienne
Collaboration: Challenges of a Cantonal Reform in Ageing Policy - 2023.
8
Facing demographic change, the canton of Neuchâtel (Switzerland) launched, in 2012, a social and health reform which aimed at supporting ageing at home. This reform entails a major reconfiguration of the care, assistance, and support network for older people, and requires renewed collaboration between the persons and institutions involved. But what exactly does this collaboration consist of, what does it cover and, how can it be improved?Drawing on sociocultural psychology and related theoretical trends, we focus on the articulation work required to ensure coherence between the activities of the persons and institutions involved in the network. Considering the tensions between these activities, we scrutinise the conditions that enable these tensions to strengthen the various actors’ agency.We present a study which followed up the implementation of this reform through a comprehensive methodology (interviews, observations, and documentary research). We first describe the heterogeneity of the network, and then report a series of examples highlighting tensions between activities within the network. Finally, we point out some obstacles to the articulation work.In conclusion, we emphasise the importance of developing the conditions that favour the articulation work and enable each member of the network to deal with the obstacles to work, and to expand their agency. In other words, articulation work contributes to the functioning of the network and, more broadly, to the implementation of the reform, just as does the creation of new structures and institutions.
Collaboration: Challenges of a Cantonal Reform in Ageing Policy - 2023.
8
Facing demographic change, the canton of Neuchâtel (Switzerland) launched, in 2012, a social and health reform which aimed at supporting ageing at home. This reform entails a major reconfiguration of the care, assistance, and support network for older people, and requires renewed collaboration between the persons and institutions involved. But what exactly does this collaboration consist of, what does it cover and, how can it be improved?Drawing on sociocultural psychology and related theoretical trends, we focus on the articulation work required to ensure coherence between the activities of the persons and institutions involved in the network. Considering the tensions between these activities, we scrutinise the conditions that enable these tensions to strengthen the various actors’ agency.We present a study which followed up the implementation of this reform through a comprehensive methodology (interviews, observations, and documentary research). We first describe the heterogeneity of the network, and then report a series of examples highlighting tensions between activities within the network. Finally, we point out some obstacles to the articulation work.In conclusion, we emphasise the importance of developing the conditions that favour the articulation work and enable each member of the network to deal with the obstacles to work, and to expand their agency. In other words, articulation work contributes to the functioning of the network and, more broadly, to the implementation of the reform, just as does the creation of new structures and institutions.
Réseaux sociaux