Looking into the future, to answer the question „Who cares for whom?” seems to be challenging. Care, understood in the context of everyday practice, concerns all of us. To take care of ourselves and others determine our basic wellbeing. Specific situations as living with illness, in need of care or also living with small children increases the dependency on others. Care needs are increasing within Western societies as a consequence of demographic changes. At the same time, resources for care are becoming scarce for various reasons. Therefore the question of care cultures of the future is an urgent societal challenge.

The project therefore focused in a first step on the investigation of actual care arrangements asking who is contributing in what ways. Students of three different types of schools have researched on different pathways. Students have approached these questions through qualitative interviews and analysis of literature. Working with a narrative approach, everyday experiences have given insight into care arrangements. In a second step, expert interviews were conducted. Collaborating with researchers of different disciplines over two years, they have aimed to formulate scenarios for a future care culture together in a third step. The scenarios were developed on the basis of specific experiences and care resources of people with different backgrounds (e.g. regarding gender, age or origin) in different care settings (private, voluntary, professional).*

This project has been completed.