Ageing From The Perspective Of The Extremely Poor Elderly: A Case Study

Abstract

Like a large number of other European countries, the Republic of Serbia is facing the process of population ageing. According to demographic estimations, the elderly could soon make up a quarter of our country's population. Ageing goes hand in hand with the increased needs of the elderly for care and nursing, but also with prejudices. A decline in the quality of life is expected unless the old person has enough social, cultural, and especially material capital. If such capital is unavailable, the old are exposed to material and other forms of deprivations. How those old people in situations of extreme poverty perceive the ageing process, and whether they have capacities to alleviate the deprivations they face, were two research questions that we tried to get an answer to in our case study. We conducted an in-depth interview with an old person in a situation of absolute poverty. Analysis showed that our respondent meets existentially important issues, without social support. However, she possesses defined mechanisms/strategies for coping and solving some of the deprivations.