Policies to promote informal social care have particular importance for elderly people, since a substantial minority of them are in receipt of informal care from kin, neighbours and friends, and the majority of those living in their own homes who receive informal care are themselves elderly. Yet informal care has not had the attention it deserves, compared to care provided by statutory, commercial or organised voluntary effort. This paper focuses on neighbourhood care, drawing on the results of a five-year research programme. Three types of neighbourhood care are examined: voluntary action for neighbourhood involvement, voluntary action for informal care, and voluntary action for neighbourhood care. Neighbourhood involvement is increasingly a political matter, with local organisation tied to specific local issues. Informal care has little directly to do with local involvement. Nine-tenths of such care is provided by kin, though there is scope for greater local action. Voluntary action for neighbourhood care is encouraged particularly by pressure-group activism, self-help organisations and support for carers. Effective informal care requires a higher degree of competence and the establishment of contexts for reciprocity. Policies in this area need to provide modest financial resources, greater information exchange and support for carers.

This paper deals with two related issues: (1) the extent to which older persons who require some assistance in the tasks of or resources needed for daily living actually receive such assistance from informal networks; and (2) the consequences of the receipt of this assistance for the older person.

The ageing of Third World populations and its implications for planning in social welfare has received little attention in the literature until now. This article explores the need radically to alter Western models of care for elderly people in an African context, arguing that in situations of mass poverty and gross economic differentiation a concentration on social welfare for urban formal sector employees is inappropriate. Zimbabwe is used as a case study. The situation of the aged in Zimbabwe is analysed from existing but scanty data, and sets of policy proposals that have relevance to the national economy and to the rural, urban and commercial farming sectors are discussed.

Most statements about the treatment and fortunes of elderly Australian Aborigines have emphasised their wisdom and sanctity and the respect and affection due to elderly relatives. Ethnographic research among the Yolngu (Murngin) of Arnhem Land suggests that the actual situation of an old person depends on an interplay of structural, situational and individual factors, including personal qualities, family support, seniority, sex, ecology and land use patterns and the effects of white colonisation and social change. Cases are presented and discussed to illustrate the variable fortunes of old Aborigines and their determinants.