Aims and Requirements of the Seminar
Population ageing across the globe presents both a historic opportunity for humanity and a substantial social policy challenge, raising a wide range of complex questions, including:
1. What does it mean to be elderly today, and how do we collectively imagine the so-called “fourth age”?
2. Who should bear responsibility for caring for older people in society?
3. What role should governments play in responding to care needs associated with frailty and vulnerability in old age?
4. Who should pay for care, and to what extent should it be regulated by the state?
5. What social risks are specific to old age compared to other stages of the life course, and how can families best be supported in caring for older relatives?
6. Do cash-for-care schemes and other forms of support for family caregivers risk reinforcing traditional, gendered care arrangements and thereby disempowering women?
7. Does public investment in long-term care facilities (e.g. nursing homes) represent the institutionalization and marginalization of older people, or does it constitute a responsible and necessary public policy response?

This seminar addresses these questions through the lens of comparative social policy and welfare state research, with a particular focus on developments in long-term care (LTC) systems worldwide. Long-term care systems are examined as expressions of distinct governmental and societal responses to the social risk associated with care dependency in old age.

The seminar begins by clarifying what long-term care is and how it overlaps with, yet differs from, other areas of social policy—most notably health care, its closest policy counterpart. Particular attention is paid to the demographic transformations driving growing demand for LTC, as well as to the major challenges countries face in meeting both current and future care needs. Given the central role families play in the provision of long-term care, the seminar also examines the specific burdens placed on family caregivers and evaluates policy measures designed to support them.
Building on this conceptual and empirical foundation, the seminar then takes a comparative perspective, exploring long-term care systems across different world regions and at varying stages of development. Our comparative journey begins with Germany, whose long-term care insurance system—introduced in 1994 and continuously evolving since—has served as a reference model for many countries.

In addition to identifying country-specific and regional trends in long-term care, students will have the opportunity to explore key thematic issues through independent case-study research, which they will then present in class or write a Hausarbeit on.

Aims and Requirements of the Seminar
Population ageing across the globe presents both a historic opportunity for humanity and a substantial social policy challenge, raising a wide range of complex questions, including:
1. What does it mean to be elderly today, and how do we collectively imagine the so-called “fourth age”?
2. Who should bear responsibility for caring for older people in society?
3. What role should governments play in responding to care needs associated with frailty and vulnerability in old age?
4. Who should pay for care, and to what extent should it be regulated by the state?
5. What social risks are specific to old age compared to other stages of the life course, and how can families best be supported in caring for older relatives?
6. Do cash-for-care schemes and other forms of support for family caregivers risk reinforcing traditional, gendered care arrangements and thereby disempowering women?
7. Does public investment in long-term care facilities (e.g. nursing homes) represent the institutionalization and marginalization of older people, or does it constitute a responsible and necessary public policy response?

This seminar addresses these questions through the lens of comparative social policy and welfare state research, with a particular focus on developments in long-term care (LTC) systems worldwide. Long-term care systems are examined as expressions of distinct governmental and societal responses to the social risk associated with care dependency in old age.

The seminar begins by clarifying what long-term care is and how it overlaps with, yet differs from, other areas of social policy—most notably health care, its closest policy counterpart. Particular attention is paid to the demographic transformations driving growing demand for LTC, as well as to the major challenges countries face in meeting both current and future care needs. Given the central role families play in the provision of long-term care, the seminar also examines the specific burdens placed on family caregivers and evaluates policy measures designed to support them.
Building on this conceptual and empirical foundation, the seminar then takes a comparative perspective, exploring long-term care systems across different world regions and at varying stages of development. Our comparative journey begins with Germany, whose long-term care insurance system—introduced in 1994 and continuously evolving since—has served as a reference model for many countries.

In addition to identifying country-specific and regional trends in long-term care, students will have the opportunity to explore key thematic issues through independent case-study research, which they will then present in class or write a Hausarbeit on.

Aims and Requirements of the Seminar
Population ageing across the globe presents both a historic opportunity for humanity and a substantial social policy challenge, raising a wide range of complex questions, including:
1. What does it mean to be elderly today, and how do we collectively imagine the so-called “fourth age”?
2. Who should bear responsibility for caring for older people in society?
3. What role should governments play in responding to care needs associated with frailty and vulnerability in old age?
4. Who should pay for care, and to what extent should it be regulated by the state?
5. What social risks are specific to old age compared to other stages of the life course, and how can families best be supported in caring for older relatives?
6. Do cash-for-care schemes and other forms of support for family caregivers risk reinforcing traditional, gendered care arrangements and thereby disempowering women?
7. Does public investment in long-term care facilities (e.g. nursing homes) represent the institutionalization and marginalization of older people, or does it constitute a responsible and necessary public policy response?

This seminar addresses these questions through the lens of comparative social policy and welfare state research, with a particular focus on developments in long-term care (LTC) systems worldwide. Long-term care systems are examined as expressions of distinct governmental and societal responses to the social risk associated with care dependency in old age.

The seminar begins by clarifying what long-term care is and how it overlaps with, yet differs from, other areas of social policy—most notably health care, its closest policy counterpart. Particular attention is paid to the demographic transformations driving growing demand for LTC, as well as to the major challenges countries face in meeting both current and future care needs. Given the central role families play in the provision of long-term care, the seminar also examines the specific burdens placed on family caregivers and evaluates policy measures designed to support them.
Building on this conceptual and empirical foundation, the seminar then takes a comparative perspective, exploring long-term care systems across different world regions and at varying stages of development. Our comparative journey begins with Germany, whose long-term care insurance system—introduced in 1994 and continuously evolving since—has served as a reference model for many countries.

In addition to identifying country-specific and regional trends in long-term care, students will have the opportunity to explore key thematic issues through independent case-study research, which they will then present in class or write a Hausarbeit on.

Aims and Requirements of the Seminar
Population ageing across the globe presents both a historic opportunity for humanity and a substantial social policy challenge, raising a wide range of complex questions, including:
1. What does it mean to be elderly today, and how do we collectively imagine the so-called “fourth age”?
2. Who should bear responsibility for caring for older people in society?
3. What role should governments play in responding to care needs associated with frailty and vulnerability in old age?
4. Who should pay for care, and to what extent should it be regulated by the state?
5. What social risks are specific to old age compared to other stages of the life course, and how can families best be supported in caring for older relatives?
6. Do cash-for-care schemes and other forms of support for family caregivers risk reinforcing traditional, gendered care arrangements and thereby disempowering women?
7. Does public investment in long-term care facilities (e.g. nursing homes) represent the institutionalization and marginalization of older people, or does it constitute a responsible and necessary public policy response?

This seminar addresses these questions through the lens of comparative social policy and welfare state research, with a particular focus on developments in long-term care (LTC) systems worldwide. Long-term care systems are examined as expressions of distinct governmental and societal responses to the social risk associated with care dependency in old age.

The seminar begins by clarifying what long-term care is and how it overlaps with, yet differs from, other areas of social policy—most notably health care, its closest policy counterpart. Particular attention is paid to the demographic transformations driving growing demand for LTC, as well as to the major challenges countries face in meeting both current and future care needs. Given the central role families play in the provision of long-term care, the seminar also examines the specific burdens placed on family caregivers and evaluates policy measures designed to support them.
Building on this conceptual and empirical foundation, the seminar then takes a comparative perspective, exploring long-term care systems across different world regions and at varying stages of development. Our comparative journey begins with Germany, whose long-term care insurance system—introduced in 1994 and continuously evolving since—has served as a reference model for many countries.

In addition to identifying country-specific and regional trends in long-term care, students will have the opportunity to explore key thematic issues through independent case-study research, which they will then present in class or write a Hausarbeit on.