ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses and illustrates how conceptions of the welfare of older people are contingent on the articulation of the political community, and how notions of 'society' and 'the nation' are central to the moral economy of ageing in a setting characterized by competing notions of what constitutes the political community. It is based on a study of how the welfare of older people in Sweden is articulated in relation to the nation-state. Central to the study's analytical strategy is analysis of actors' discourse on the far right of the political spectrum, since they tend to show strong interest in the welfare of older people and use this to problematize what is taken for granted in mainstream public discourse. The Sweden Democrats are not the only party in Europe with an anti-immigrant or racist agenda that have used old age and the welfare of older people in their rhetoric and claims.
