'Left Like Stones in the Middle of the Road': Narratives of Aging Alone and Coping Strategies in Rural Albania and Bulgaria

摘要

Objectives: We explore and compare older adults' lived experiences and coping strategies in two postcommunist countries-Albania and Bulgaria. Wholesale youth outmigration and economic and institutional regional decline have led to decaying rural areas where older adults become "abandoned." Aging alone, as couples or widowed, they are socially marginalized and in constant search for coping mechanisms which enable them to survive.