The interpretive dynamics of filial and collective responsibility for elderly people

Drawing on accounts from 28 adult children, I explore the interpretive dynamics of filial and social responsibility for elderly people. Participants tended to characterize individualistic, voluntary motivations positively in talk about personal filial responsibility, yet when speaking about other Canadians, criticized individualistic values as promoting irresponsibility. Others were assessed negatively in contrast to an idealized past and non-Western cultures; "Canadian society" was used as a contrast against which to define self as filially responsible. In this process, participants also reproduced conceptual opposition between filial and societal responsibility; rarer was an alternative, "solidarity" paradigm utilized.