The politics of ageing in place: feminist perspectives on care and dependency in Germany

Ageing in the private home – commonly referred to as ageing in place – is often celebrated as the ideal form of later-life living, promising autonomy and independence. Drawing on feminist theories of autonomy and dependency, this paper examines how the discourse of ageing in place is negotiated in Germany. Instead of focusing on how ageing in place could be achieved, it investigates the dependency structures that enable it. Through a discourse analysis of the German federal government’s ageing reports, the paper shows how imaginaries of autonomous ageing conceal relational dependencies, hide exploitative care conditions, and individualise responsibility for successful ageing – a process I call a ‘double individualisation of burden’. Ultimately, the paper argues that ageing in place is a spatial expression of a family-based care regime. In response to a growing care crisis, technologies are employed to maintain the ideal of independence, thereby reinforcing rather than resolving underlying inequalities. This analysis contributes to geographical debates on ageing from a feminist perspective by exposing the hidden dependencies that support the idea of autonomous ageing in place.