Omsorgsfylld landsbygd Rumsliga perspektiv på åldrande och omsorg på den svenska landsbygden

Sammanfattning: The aim of this thesis is to study the intersection of rural areas, ageing and care. It is  based on interviews with elderly and caregivers carried out in the municipality of Heby in the middle of Sweden. Care is given a broad definition and includes help with many daily activities given by family members, the public sector, the private sector, voluntary organisations and neighbours.The studied rural area is described as filled with care, as there exist people with care needs and caregivers from several sectors. Together the elderly and their caregivers create a landscape of care which they strive to describe as characterized by mutual dependency and carefulness, as well as created between formal and informal relationships. The different care givers are dependent on, complement and sometimes exclude each other.With an increasing trend with ageing in place, the own home is becoming more Important for the rural aged. This creates special careneeds, and reshapes the home physically and gives it and the local community a specific meaning. The own home and its surroundings are seen as consisting of physical features, social relationships and memories of the lived life. The own home is both seen as a place where the elderly can be independent and as a place where they are dependent, which defines the home as a contradictory place.The study wants to contribute to a more developed theoretical understanding of the rural with an age and care perspective. Above all it is stressed that the rural is filled with care relations. Also it is stated that the elderly live in a constantly changing rural society and that the rural is placed between a material and social understanding respectively between the concepts of periphery and center.