THE IMPACT OF KINSHIP NETWORKS ON OLD-AGE VULNERABILITY IN INDONESIA

This article examines the problem of care provision for elderly people in Java, a contemporary developing society characterised by lack of formal welfare services, nuclear family organisation and high levels of childlessness. A similar socio-demographic, cultural and economic regime existed in historical Northwest Europe, where it has been seen as having contributed to the early emergence of community based old-age care and low involvement of wider kin networks. Here the role of kin in providing old-age care in a nuclear family system is re-examined by drawing on longitudinal data of elderly people's life histories and support networks in a village in East Java. The central argument is that the identification of elders most vulnerable to a lack of care and support in old age requires understanding the nature and functioning of kin networks over time. The paper discusses three key aspects of networks-network membership, exchanges within networks and network dynamics-and arrives at a characterisation of different kin networks on the basis of size, composition, location and social status. By focusing on the effects of a specific crisis, namely the loss of a wife, on care outcomes in old age, it is possible to determine what kinds of kin networks are best able to adjust to a sudden change in older people's circumstances and protect them from declines in welfare. This reveals the importance, especially for childless elderly people, of extended, heterogeneous and well-connected kin networks.