Abstract
In these days, the number of the elderly who live alone is rising (“The Poverty of Social Networks”on the elderly) and the risk of the “Dying Alone” has been increasing. “Dying Alone” means the phenomenon that elderly die alone without anyone noticing. In this paper, we examine the concept of “Dying Alone”and how this phenomenon has been constructed as a social problem. Though data and researches of “Dying Alone” are not enough, we try to search the cases of “Dying Alone” in Aisai City, to find out the process how elderly have come to be isolated and the causes why “Dying Alone” happened. Adding a survey of social networks of elderly residents in Aisai City, two findings are conducted.
① Community-based care for “Dying Alone” does not play a large part in preventing the isolated elderly residents from dying alone.
② There are a lot of resources for “Dying Alone” that can be selected by the elderlyand this process can be facilitated by networking them.
Through this analysis, we suggest the alternative model for “Dying Alone”, by using some theoretical approaches of urban sociology.
