Community care and social participation: An ethnography of clubs for older people in Peñalolén (Chile) during and after the pandemic

Abstract

This article presents a case study on the community care practices carried out by older people who participated in the clubs of the Peñalolén district (Metropolitan Region of Chile). We focus on the experiences of care expressed in these collective social spaces during the pandemic triggered by Covid-19 and in the subsequent months when older people began to meet up again. We aim to describe the experiences and practices of care expressed in these spaces, paying attention to those carried out by the older people at a time when personal freedom was highly restricted. For this purpose, we conducted 32 biographical interviews between 2021 and 2022 in the framework of ethnographic research. In addition, we carried out systematic observations in the homes and clubs of older people in the district of Peñalolén. The analysis of this material shows that social support networks and community care practices among those who participate in the clubs make up social and cultural capital that is activated in times of crisis. Without this capital, coping with these periods of great difficulties would be much more challenging.