Local culture, globalisation and policy outcomes: an example from long term care

It is argued that the impact of globalisation and global ideologies on social policy can depend on the ways that local cultures reinforce or combat global ideologies and pressures. The paper discusses the importance of local policy factors in shaping responses to globalisation, taking as an example the way in which global forces have affected outcomes for older people needing long term care in one marginalised province of a rich country. Local political, economic and sociocultural factors can reinforce global pressures for neo liberal policies and rising individualism and overwhelm the global ideologies of democracy and human rights (including gender rights and anti ageism) that might lead to better outcomes for older people and their caregivers. In the New Brunswick province of Canada, traditional cultural values can be seen as one factor allowing politicians to make suboptimal social policy choices.