Old-age Vulnerability in Indonesia: A Longitudinal Social Network Approach

This paper is concerned with three related questions: How can vulnerable older people in a contemporary developing society be identified? What are the processes leading to their vulnerability? What is the role of older people’s social networks in determining vulnerability or security? Addressing these questions in full requires consideration of a range of different vulnerabilities and pathways leading to them. In this paper the focus is more modest, namely on the effects of a specific crisis (the recent loss of a spouse) on the availability or lack of acceptable care and practical help in old age. Vulnerability is thus defined as the heightened risk of being without adequate care in old age. It is argued that understanding this vulnerability in the context of Indonesia requires understanding informal social networks and their adaptability over time. Certain types of networks are likely to be more reliable sources of support than others, and so it is with a characterisation of networks and their operation as support networks in a crisis that I am concerned here.