Caring Cities: Long-Term Care in Central European Capital Cities

City of Vienna

It is widely acknowledged that the local level plays an essential role in shaping social policy and long-term care. However, cross-country comparisons on these decentralized levels are scarce. The project aims at comparatively analyzing the role of four Central European cities, Bratislava, Budapest, Prague and Vienna, in the field of long-term care.

For studying the „caring city“, the interplay between the national and the local level becomes relevant in two ways. On the one hand, the national care regime manifests itself in the specific local/urban context. As the ground for implementation, the city essentially influences the outcomes of national policies. On the other hand, local actors have a scope of action in the regulation, organisation and provision of long-term care in their city. National regulations therefore define the space for local care policies and essentially structure the local care situation.

Using surveys and interviews with local experts, the project will analyse the role of Central European cities in the field of long-term care. If focuses on how national regulations are realized in the urban context and on how cities shape long-term care in the given regulatory frame. Hereby, the study explores how the current urban long-term care situation is being structured through these relations. It stands out for its focus on local long term care, and by covering a region that has not been well studied in the international long-term care literature so far.