Thurid Eggers, University of Bremen, SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy, DIFIS German Institute for Interdisciplinary Social Policy Research

Ruth Abramowski, University of Bremen, SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy, DIFIS German Institute for Interdisciplinary Social Policy Research

Miriam Laschinski, University of Bremen, SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy, DIFIS German Institute for Interdisciplinary Social Policy Research

In recent decades promoting the participation of people in need of care and their – mainly female – caregivers have become a key issue in long-term care (LTC) policies for older people. These groups are of specific interest as they are often marginalized and excluded from full participation in social, political, and economic life. From a cit- izenship perspective, participation is a key human right and a prerequisite for full citi- zenship. According to Lister (1998) participatory rights include those citizenship rights that enable people to act as agents and to take an active part in society. Welfare states extended social rights to receive and provide care. People gained access to publicly-funded care (to different degrees), the care infrastructure expanded and the life phases in which relatives/volunteers provide care have received increasing pro- tection. Apart from these mainly compensatory rights, some welfare states also intro- duced instruments and concepts to strengthen the actual practice of participation of care recipients and caregivers, including, for example, the promotion of concepts of reablement, user involvement, co-production, or caring communities as participa- tory infrastructure. We are interested in the measures and concepts that welfare states apply to the participatory rights of both caregivers and care recipients and what this means for the practice of participation. We encourage submissions that examine par- ticipatory rights theoretically and empirically as single-case or cross-national studies, addressing among others the following questions:

• How are participatory rights in the field of LTC institutionalised?
• Who are the actors and how are they involved in promoting the participation of people needing care?
• Which concepts such as participatory societies, caring communities, and neighbourhood networks are implemented and beneficial to strengthen the participation of caregivers and care receivers?
• Which dimensions of social inequality play a role, and how are these linked to participatory rights and social inclusion?