Autonomy in later life is often reduced to functional independence or a single decision point, obscuring how agency is actually lived when daily help is needed. Guided by hermeneutic phenomenology, this study explores autonomy not as an isolated capacity but as a practice through which older adults sustain selfhood within care contexts.


To date, this ongoing study has interviewed ten community-dwelling older adults receiving daily support (age range: 65-93, 60% women) in Korea, and recruitment is ongoing. Analysis followed van Manen's holistic, selective, and detailed readings, with reflective writing oriented by lifeworld existentials (lived body, time, space, relation). In a subsequent step, a triadic view of selfhood—Self 1(enduring sense of identity), Self 2 (self as experienced and described), and Self 3 (socially presented self)—was used to interpret the themes within a psychological frame.


Preliminary analysis identified three interrelated modes of autonomy: existential autonomy—a steady stance of "who I am" that persists amid dependency (Self 1); relational autonomy—negotiated through interactional positioning with informal and formal caregivers (Self 3); and situated (lifeworld) autonomy—enacted through embodied routines and routine-environment fit across time and place (extending Self 2). These modes interacted dynamically: identity claims were strengthened (or stalled) by interactional positioning and then made real through adjustments to everyday arrangements.


Autonomy is not merely a capacity but a lived practice—a way of acting through which older adults maintain, and at times adapt, their selfhood. This dual-stage reading explains why conventional indicators for functional limitations miss essential dimensions and points to practice priorities: protecting narrative identity, fostering supportive interactions, and adapting routines and environments to sustain lived agency.