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Getting out of the house: the use of community transport as a third place for rural-dwelling older adults
Abstract
Presentation on rural community transport in Northern Ireland
As a concept, social exclusion has considerable potential to explain and respond to disadvantage in later life. However, in the context of ageing populations, the construct remains ambiguous. A disjointed evidence-base, spread across disparate disciplines, compounds the challenge of developing a coherent understanding of exclusion in older age. This article addresses this research deficit by presenting the findings of a two-stage scoping review encompassing seven separate reviews of the international literature pertaining to old-age social exclusion. Stage one involved a review of conceptual frameworks on old-age exclusion, identifying conceptual understandings and key domains of later-life exclusion. Stage two involved scoping reviews on each domain (six in all). Stage one identified six conceptual frameworks on old-age exclusion and six common domains across these frameworks: neighbourhood and community; services, amenities and mobility; social relations; material and financial resources; socio-cultural aspects; and civic participation. International literature concentrated on the first four domains, but indicated a general lack of research knowledge and of theoretical development. Drawing on all seven scoping reviews and a knowledge synthesis, the article presents a new definition and conceptual framework relating to old-age exclusion.
Transport poverty is an issue that has never fully captured the interests of the transport engineering profession in either the ‘global north’ or ‘global south’ and yet it is a problem that adversely affects the daily lives of millions of people across the globe. What precisely constitutes transport poverty is not adequately articulated within academic, policy or infrastructure design literature. This paper aims to demonstrate how the different ways that academic studies and policy programmes have defined and recorded the problem of transport poverty is directly related to the ways in which it has been subsequently addressed in practice. The overall impression is one of inadequacy, fragmentation, inconsistency and tokenistic treatment of an issue that potentially affects anywhere between 10 to 90% of all households, depending on which definition is used and which country is being considered. This suggests that it is a far greater problem than the transport profession has previously been prepared to recognise and one that requires its urgent attention given the continuing trends for mass migration, urbanisation and wealth concentration within and between the ‘global north’ and ‘global south’.
This article examines relationships between access to a car and the self-reported health and mental health of older people. The analysis is based on a sample of N = 65,601 individuals aged 65 years and older from the Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study linked to 2001 and 2011 census returns. The findings from hierarchical linear and binary logistic multilevel path models indicate that having no access to a car is related to a considerable health and mental health disadvantage particularly for older people who live alone. Rural-urban health and mental health differences are mediated by access to a car. The findings support approaches that emphasize the importance of autonomy and independence for the well-being of older people and indicate that not having access to a car can be a problem for older people not only in rural but also in intermediate and urban areas, if no sufficient alternative forms of mobility are provided.
© The Author(s) 2015.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is considered the most harmful of the greenhouse gases. Despite policy efforts, transport is the only sector experiencing an increase in the level of CO2 emissions and thereby possesses a major threat to sustainable development. In contrast, a reduced level of mobility has been associated with an increasing risk of being socially excluded. However, despite being the two key elements in transport policy, little effort has so far been made to investigate the links between CO2 emissions and social exclusion. This research contributes to this gap by analysing data from 157 weekly activity-travel diaries collected in rural Northern Ireland. CO2 emission levels were calculated using average speed models for different modes of transport. Regression analyses were then conducted to identify the socio-spatial patterns associated with these CO2 emissions, mode choice behaviour, and patterns of participation in activities. This research found that despite emitting a higher level of CO2, groups in rural areas possess the risk of being socially excluded due to their higher levels of mobility.
Loneliness among older adults is a major public health problem that may be associated with processes of social participation and identity. This study therefore sought to examine the relationship between social participation and identity in a sample of lonely older adults living independently in London, England.
An inductive qualitative approach, based on semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis, was employed.
Participants commonly spoke of barriers to social participation that have been reported elsewhere, including illness/disability, loss of contact with friends/relatives, lack of a supportive community, and lack of acceptable social opportunities. However, novel findings were also derived. In particular, participants commonly minimised the difficulties they faced alone, and described attempts to avoid social opportunities. These behaviours were linked to fears about engaging in social participation opportunities, including fears of social rejection and/or exploitation, and fears of losing valued aspects of identity.
It is concluded that social participation amongst lonely older people will not improve through the removal of previously reported barriers alone; instead, older peoples' beliefs, fears and identities must be addressed. Suggestions for implementing these findings within community organisations are provided.
Driving cessation is a gradual process, where driver's self-regulation plays an important role. Age-based licence renewal may interfere with this process and trigger premature driving cessation. The present study compares Danish drivers (aged 69 years at the baseline) who either renewed or gave up their driving licence. Data were collected in 2009 (N=1,792) and in 2012 (N=863). The standardised interviews covered respondents' background information, health and wellbeing, and transportation patterns. Non-renewers had poorer health already at baseline but did become more dependent on others in their activities after giving up their licence. In travel frequency, neither the differences between renewers and non-renewers nor the changes over time within the groups were pronounced. The groups differed in their use of transport modes already at the baseline: the renewers drove, while non-renewers travelled as passengers, used public transport, walked or cycled. Not renewing the licence was a strong predictor of unmet mobility needs, especially in relation to leisure activities. The present study indicates that younger seniors' mobility is not likely to be affected by the strict renewal policies. However, given the positive economic and safety consequences of independent mobility in old age, society should try to prevent unwarranted mobility loss. Having restrictive, ageist policies that moreover fail as societal investments may work against this goal.
A person's mental health and many common mental disorders are shaped by various social, economic, and physical environments operating at different stages of life. Risk factors for many common mental disorders are heavily associated with social inequalities, whereby the greater the inequality the higher the inequality in risk. The poor and disadvantaged suffer disproportionately, but those in the middle of the social gradient are also affected. It is of major importance that action is taken to improve the conditions of everyday life, beginning before birth and progressing into early childhood, older childhood and adolescence, during family building and working ages, and through to older age. Action throughout these life stages would provide opportunities for both improving population mental health, and for reducing risk of those mental disorders that are associated with social inequalities. As mental disorders are fundamentally linked to a number of other physical health conditions, these actions would also reduce inequalities in physical health and improve health overall. Action needs to be universal: across the whole of society and proportionate to need. Policy-making at all levels of governance and across sectors can make a positive difference.
This study contributes to the literature on mobility and wellbeing at older ages through an empirical exploration of the meanings of free bus travel for older citizens, addressing the meanings this holds for older people in urban settings, which have been under-researched. Taking London as a case study, where older citizens have free access to a relatively extensive public transport network through a Freedom Pass, we explore from a public health perspective the mechanisms that link this travel benefit to determinants of wellbeing. In addition to the ways in which the Freedom Pass enabled access to health-related goods and services, it provided less tangible benefits. Travelling by bus provided opportunities for meaningful social interaction; travelling as part of the 'general public' provided a sense of belonging and visibility in the public arena - a socially acceptable way of tackling chronic loneliness. The Freedom Pass was described not only as providing access to essential goods and services but also as a widely prized mechanism for participation in life in the city. We argue that the mechanisms linking mobility and wellbeing are culturally, materially and politically specific. Our data suggest that in contexts where good public transport is available as a right, and bus travel not stigmatised, it is experienced as a major contributor to wellbeing, rather than a transport choice of last resort. This has implications for other jurisdictions working on accessible transport for older citizens and, more broadly, improving the sustainability of cities.
Objectives.We draw on cognitive discrepancy theory to hypothesize and test a pathway from poor health to loneliness in later life. We hypothesize that poor health will have a negative influence on social participation and social resources, and these factors will mediate between health and loneliness. We hypothesize that rural environments will amplify any difficulties associated with social participation or accessing social resources and that depression will moderate how intensely people react to levels of social contact and support.
We conceptualize a mediation model and a moderated-mediation model. Nationally representative data on older people living in the Republic of Ireland are used to validate the hypothesized pathways.
In the mediation model, health has a significant indirect effect on loneliness through the mediating variables social resources and social participation. In the moderated-mediation model, rurality moderates the pathway between health and social resources but not social participation. Depressive symptoms moderate the effect of social resources on loneliness but not social participation.Discussion.The results provide further credence to cognitive discrepancy theory, suggesting that depressive symptoms influence cognitive processes, interfering with judgments about the adequacy of social interaction. The theory is extended by demonstrating the impact of the environment on loneliness.
Self-determination is a curious concept, related to, but not quite the same as, freedom and autonomy. As an ethical principle, the principle of self-determination bears little relationship to the way social workers behave. It is used as if clients were being allowed a free, independent choice; but clients are subject to pressure, and the social work relationship is often conceived within a structure of authority. As a guide to practice, the concept of self-determination ignores the cases where direction is legitimate or desirable.
Self-determination can be seen as a professional ideology—an inter-related set of values and ideas. The concept is derived from a number of ideas and values outside social work, but it appears to have little direct relevance to social work in practice. The paper suggests that the concept of freedom may be more useful and less remote from the realities than ‘self-detemination’ is.
The late 1990s and early 2000s witnessed a growing interest amongst UK academics and policy makers in the issue of transport disadvantage and, more innovatively, how this might relate to growing concerns about the social exclusion of low income groups and communities. Studies (predominantly in the United Kingdom) began to make more explicit the links policy between poverty, transport disadvantage, access to key services and economic and social exclusion (see for example Church and Frost, 2000; TRaC, 2000; Lucas et al., 2001; Kenyon 2003; Kenyon et al., 2003; Hodgson and Turner, 2003; Raje, 2003).
Doyal and Gough’s theory of human need highlighted that personal autonomy is a universal need and human right, essential for well‐being. In applying their theory to older disabled people in the UK the author suggests that their ‘minimally autonomous’ threshold would exclude some older people in long‐term care who still have a fundamental need for autonomy or, alternatively, extant autonomy. The disability movement has highlighted that independent living is fundamental to achieving self‐determination for disabled people and debate on equality and caregiving emphasises the autonomy of carers. However, there is a lack of recognition in both academic research and government policy of autonomy as a need and right of older disabled people. The author argues that autonomy is a human right of older people living in long‐term care settings, but that social rights are necessary to facilitate their autonomy.
This study introduces theory about how deficits in social support motivate consumers to replace lost social resources by forming relationships with customers and employees in commercial “third places.” The authors demonstrate support for a multiple-indicator, multiple-cause model that illustrates how six common events that destroy or erode a person's social support can cause the person to obtain emotional support and companionship in a third place. The model supports the linkage between commercial social support and a consumer's sense of attachment to a third place that harbors his or her social support network. The authors also propose and test hypotheses that reveal that consumers obtain social support in a third place to the extent to which they lost it outside the place. In essence, third-place patrons match their lost support to their commercial support, thus remedying negative symptoms associated with isolation. The article concludes with a discussion of managerial implications and limitations.
Both social isolation and loneliness are associated with increased mortality, but it is uncertain whether their effects are independent or whether loneliness represents the emotional pathway through which social isolation impairs health. We therefore assessed the extent to which the association between social isolation and mortality is mediated by loneliness. We assessed social isolation in terms of contact with family and friends and participation in civic organizations in 6,500 men and women aged 52 and older who took part in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing in 2004-2005. A standard questionnaire measure of loneliness was administered also. We monitored all-cause mortality up to March 2012 (mean follow-up 7.25 y) and analyzed results using Cox proportional hazards regression. We found that mortality was higher among more socially isolated and more lonely participants. However, after adjusting statistically for demographic factors and baseline health, social isolation remained significantly associated with mortality (hazard ratio 1.26, 95% confidence interval, 1.08-1.48 for the top quintile of isolation), but loneliness did not (hazard ratio 0.92, 95% confidence interval, 0.78-1.09). The association of social isolation with mortality was unchanged when loneliness was included in the model. Both social isolation and loneliness were associated with increased mortality. However, the effect of loneliness was not independent of demographic characteristics or health problems and did not contribute to the risk associated with social isolation. Although both isolation and loneliness impair quality of life and well-being, efforts to reduce isolation are likely to be more relevant to mortality.
Community activity is a key contributor to quality of life for many older people. It also plays a role in the well-being of the communities they live in. Mobility, though, is central to such activity, and thus a conceptual link is proposed between ‘mobility capital’ and wider community sustainability. In developed nations older people comprise a growing share of rural populations and thus are of increasing importance to rural community sustainability, yet their mobility can be problematic. The paper contends that mobility is further compromised by an increasing focus on the car as the rural transport solution. To explore this hypothesis, the community interactions of a sample of rural elders living in Southwest England and Wales is examined, drawing on a survey and semi-structured interviews. Key findings were the localised nature of most journeys and the wide range of transport modes used. Although car availability was important, it was not a panacea. Given the importance of community activities to individuals and their communities it is concluded that more emphasis should be placed in rural transport policy on facilitating short-range travel for social purposes, including walking, cycling and the use of mobility scooters.
This paper adds to the growing number of studies about mobility and wellbeing in later life. It proposes a broader understanding of mobility than movement through physical space. Drawing on the ‘mobility turn’ in the social sciences, we conceptualise mobility as the overcoming of any type of distance between a here and a there, which can be situated in physical, electronic, social, psychological or other kinds of space. Using qualitative data from 128 older people in County Durham, England, we suggest that mobility and wellbeing influence each other in many different ways. Our analysis extends previous research in various ways. First, it shows that mobility of the self – a mental disposition of openness and willingness to connect with the world – is a crucial driver of the relation between mobility and wellbeing. Second, while loss of mobility as physical movement can and often does affect older people's sense of wellbeing adversely, this is not necessarily so; other mobilities can at least to some extent compensate for the loss of mobility in physical space. Finally, wellbeing is also enhanced through mobility as movement in physical space because the latter enables independence or subjectively experienced autonomy, as well as inter-dependence in the sense of relatively equal and reciprocal social relations with other people.
There has been a recent rejuvenation of community transport following the UK Government's new transport policy of 1998, and Northern Ireland's new Rural Transport Fund. The latter offers for the first time specific funding and integrated planning for community transport and public transport, at least in rural areas. Prior to this, the voluntary transport sector in Northern Ireland had been lagging behind that in Great Britain for various reasons. This paper discusses the nature of voluntary transport at community level, and reviews the wider UK policy background, before focusing on the situation in Northern Ireland, summarising the types of services available and the rapid rate of progress in rural areas between 1998 and 2000. There is now a prospect of some form of supplementary transport across the Province, but the potential demand is so great that much remains to be done.Key index words: community transport, Northern Ireland, mobility, disabled
This collection of original essays explores the social and relational dimensions of individual autonomy. Rejecting the feminist charge that autonomy is inherently masculinist, the contributors draw on feminist critiques of autonomy to challenge and enrich contemporary philosophical debates about agency, identity, and moral responsibility. The essays analyse the complex ways in which oppression can impair an agent’s capacity for autonomy, and investigate connections, neglected by standard accounts, between autonomy and other aspects of the agent, including self-conception, self-worth, memory, and the imagination.
Rural-dwelling older adults experience significant shrinkage in their social networks and capital due to transitions in later life related to poor physical health, mobility difficulties and bereavements. Being rurally located adds an extra layer of disadvantage. This article explores how older adults may use community transport systems to not only facilitate important social tasks but also maintain friendships and other valued relationships. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 11 users of a rural transport community bus service in western Northern Ireland. The interviews identified that participants viewed the transport system as a highly valued conduit for helping escape isolation, maintaining autonomy, and providing an informal space for relationship building and accessing local news.
The purpose of this paper is to examine whether place-based, internal resources are related to population growth in small rural communities. Presumably due to data unavailability, very few previous studies have tried to model population growth at the sub-municipality level so far. This paper attempts to fill some of this gap by using a unique parish sample (n = 489) to model population growth in rural parishes in Denmark during the period 2012–2017. The paper employs a capital framework approach and initially identifies six place-based stocks of capital that might be important to the population development in small rural communities. Moreover, the paper makes a distinction between rural parishes located in predominantly rural municipalities and rural parishes located in predominantly urban municipalities. Based on multiple regression analyses, initial levels of physical capital, economic capital and human capital were found to be related to population growth in rural parishes located in predominantly rural municipalities, whereas only symbolic capital (place reputation) was found to be related to population growth in rural parishes located in predominantly urban municipalities.
Engagement in civic, social, and community life plays an important role in health, well-being, and quality of life, and requires individuals to be mobile in their environment. In this article, we review what is currently known about 2 areas relevant to safe mobility for older drivers and identify future research in these areas. Using a framework for transportation and safe mobility, 2 key areas were selected for review: the process of transitioning to non-driving and the maintenance of mobility after driving has ceased. This article serves as a companion to another article that used the same approach to explore safe mobility issues for older adults who are still driving. We found that although there has been progress in supporting transitioning process to non-driving and improving mobility options for older adults following driving cessation, many knowledge gaps still exist. We identified several research topics that would benefit from continued scientific inquiry. In addition, several themes emerged from the review, including the need for: multidisciplinary, community-wide solutions; large-scale, longitudinal studies; improved education and training for older adults and the variety of stakeholders involved in older adult transportation; and the need for programs and interventions that are flexible and responsive to individual needs and situational differences.
Risk individualisation is increasingly apparent in policy and practice discourses on social exclusion. For older people who live in rural communities, potentially compounding risk factors associated with social exclusion emerge from the intersection of ageing and rurality. When linked to the diversity of individuals, rural settings, and national jurisdictions, this raises intriguing questions concerning how rural communities perceive and manage related risk. The article draws on comparable data from Australia, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland to explore rural community stakeholders' perceptions of the construction of, and responsibility for, risk of old-age social exclusion. Data derive from interviews and focus groups with 84 stakeholders from 13 settings across the three jurisdictions. Analysis illustrates an almost universal narrative around the individualisation of risk of old-age social exclusion, where rural communities serve a role in risk mitigation more than construction. The narrative's policy, sociocultural and contextual drivers, together with its implications, are discussed with reference to the contrasting national contexts. Sociologia Ruralis
To pursue development goals, policymakers and scholars alike have proposed that actors in rural areas may usefully engage in collective actions, e.g. by forming community groups, producer associations or multi-actor networks. One proposed benefit of such collaborations is the enhanced knowledge exchange and learning which may be created, and in the literature the dynamics of this are often explained via the concepts of embeddedness and/or social capital. To date however, studies tend towards a somewhat narrow, territorial, interpretation of these concepts, with the result that current understanding of how collaborations and learning evolve between rural actors is rather constrained. This paper aims to explore a broader interpretation of these concepts, through case analysis of a producer cooperative in the Scottish shellfish sector. In the case, the realities of member and management relations are revealed, along with the types of knowledge generated and the processes by which these are, or are not, shared between actors. In terms of embeddedness, our analysis reveals that, rather than the local community context which tends to dominate the literature, it is sectoral norms and habits which shape actor relations and learning most significantly in this case. In terms of social capital, we identify that tension-fuelled social relations are not in themselves a barrier to collaboration, again in contrast to existing claims, particularly where key actors have appropriate interpersonal skills, and where a values-based mindset (‘cooperative know-how’) is held in common. The findings therefore challenge popular assumptions about how embeddedness and social capital shape collective action and learning in rural areas, and illustrate the value of interpreting these concepts more expansively.
Using data gained from ethnographic research and interviews, this article examines ‘third place’ sociability in the social interactions of the Polar Bears of Martha’s Vineyard, a group of predominantly but not exclusively middle-aged and senior African-American men and women who swim, exercise and socialise together each morning at ‘the Inkwell’ beach. Using Georg Simmel’s concept of sociability and Ray Oldenburg’s third-place theoretical framework, this study explores the key role of the Monday communal breakfast and the function of conversation in establishing bonds between individuals. It further investigates the promotion of strong feelings of social connectedness, belonging, social support, social capital gains and community among its group members. The ongoing sociability and informal rules of the Polar Bears of Martha’s Vineyard has enabled it to become a model group demonstration of third-place community building. The importance of race, class and place is socio-historically investigated within the broader social context of the popular racialised section of the beach, ‘the Inkwell’, of African-American community life, and within the sub-community milieu of group social interaction.
This article details how social work with older people is disappearing whilst also being supplanted by seemingly more cost-effective forms of intervention in the UK. This has included the use of higher numbers of unqualified staff in roles once completed by qualified social workers, alongside highly rationed interventions that utilise fewer staff or associate welfare professionals, including those drawn from health care.
Findings
Such reforms represent important changes embedded within neo-liberal inspired professional discursive practices. These include the biomedicalisation of ageing and associate narrow gaze interpretations of social care needs that privilege pathology and risk. For social work there has also been an ongoing retreat from older adults within communities: from care-managed and personalised support to the extension of ‘risk averse’ safeguarding and promotion of personal autonomy for users and informal care. Rather than represent a break with the past, such socially constructed and politically motivated reforms remain part of longer held societal and ideological trends. Importantly, these include assumptions that older users remain a peripheral concern in contrast to other social groups or needs.
Applications
The article concludes that the social work profession needs to articulate its distinct role with regard to its capability to provide substantive support to an ageing population, alongside its capacity to look beyond a narrow and unsustainable focus on rationing or the endorsement of self-support, treating illness and controlling risk.
This article uses data from the Annual Population Survey collected between April 2011 and March 2012 which includes measures of personal well-being. It describes the results of regression analysis – a statistical technique which analyses variation in well-being outcomes by specific characteristics and circumstances of individuals while holding all other characteristics equal. This allows for a better understanding of what matters most to personal well-being than when different factors are considered separately.
This paper explores the contribution of older people to society, the role of mobility in the quality of life of older people, and whether making it easier for older people to travel would enable them to increase their contribution. The paper commences by considering evidence on the economic value of older people to society. This shows that older people make a net contribution through expenditure in shops, employment, voluntary work, childcare and taxation which exceeds their cost to the taxpayer. The assumptions underlying the calculations are examined and found to be robust. The patterns of travel of older people are examined and found to be consistent with the estimates of the economic contribution of older people. Mobility provides many intrinsic benefits for older people, facilitating independence, reducing social isolation and physical activity. Evidence from the examples of the ability to drive and providing free bus travel is considered. Then the contribution of older people to society in future is examined and how travel contributes to this. It is shown that changes in older people׳s mobility would affect their contribution to society. Ways in which the mobility of older people could be increased are identified.
Governments are challenged by the need to ensure that ageing populations stay active and engaged as they age. Therefore, it is critical to investigate the role of mobility in older people's engagement in out-of-home activities, and to identify the experiences they have within their communities. This research investigates the use of transportation by older people and its implications for their out-of-home activities within suburban environments. The qualitative, mixed-method approach employs data collection methods which include a daily travel diary (including a questionnaire), Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking and semi-structured interviews with older people living in suburban environments in Brisbane, Australia. Results show that older people are mobile throughout the city, and their car provides them with that opportunity to access desired destinations. This ability to drive allows older people to live independently and to assist others who do not drive, particularly where transport alternatives are not as accessible. The ability to transport goods and other people is a significant advantage of the private car over other transport options. People with no access to private transportation who live in low-density environments are disadvantaged when it comes to participation within the community. Further research is needed to better understand the relationship between transportation and participation within the community environment, to assist policy makers and city and transportation planners to develop strategies for age-friendly environments within the community.
Ever since the 1970s, Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) has been promoted as a transport solution in circumstances where more traditional services are not economically viable, although so far a range of barriers has prevented its widespread adoption. More recently, new developments in operational and vehicle technology, coupled with significant cuts to public transport subsidy budgets, promote a willingness to explore ‘institutionally challenging’ options such as integrating transport provision across a range of different sectors. This has once more pushed the DRT concept forward as a possible option for saving money whilst retaining opportunities for accessibility.
Rural dwelling and older age are both associated with a higher risk of social exclusion, with accessibility identified as having an important facilitating role. The interactions between transport-related exclusion and older age, particularly in a rural context, are considered though analysis of quantitative and qualitative data collected from over 900 older persons living in rural areas of Southwest England and Wales. Although few respondents reported feeling excluded within their communities, more reported difficulties in accessing specific necessary and discretionary activities, including specialist hospitals and cinemas. Analysis revealed that car availability is not a strong indicator of overall inclusion, although non-availability was important in limiting access to particular types of location. It is concluded that the relatively short travel distances required to access community activities was a key factor in the high levels of community inclusion. However, the car-dependent nature of travel overall means that there is a rising risk of mobility-related exclusion in rural areas, particularly amongst the oldest old. Greater consideration needs to be given to more formalised lift-giving as a transport solution, along with greater attention to mobility needs by sector-specific service providers, such as the health sector.
This paper explores the relations between older people, poverty and place in rural Britain. It develops previous work on rural poverty that has pointed both to the significance of older people within the rural poor population and to their denials of poverty. The paper also connects with recent discussions on the complexity of relations between poverty and social exclusion in later life, as well as key themes emerging from studies of older people in disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods. Drawing on findings from a survey of 4000 households in rural Wales and interviews with older people in poverty in three rural places, the paper provides a detailed examination of the materialities and experiences of poverty among older people in rural places. In particular, it highlights how older poor groups construct their lives in complex terms with references made to both social inclusions and exclusions. The research also points to the significance of the socio-cultural contexts of place in shaping older people's understandings of poverty in rural areas.
This paper describes a series of focus groups that were undertaken in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland to examine the challenges faced by older people in rural Ireland when trying to make trips. The paper outlines transport policy in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and describes the activity patterns of older trip makers and the modes they use. It also discusses some of the contrasts between challenges faced by older men and older women. Both older men and older women experience a shrinking in activity spaces and activity participation when older. Older women are less likely to drive and to own a car and so are seriously impacted by loss of a spouse in terms of their unmet travel needs. However, older men also experience difficulties: the alternatives that are available (such as community transport schemes) provide trips and services that are more attractive to women. In addition, the car dependent lifestyles of men throughout their adult lives seems to make them less prepared for life without a car than older women.
Current knowledge about the relationship between transport disadvantage and activity space size is limited to urban areas, and as a result, very little is known about this link in a rural context. In addition, although research has identified transport disadvantaged groups based on their size of activity space, these studies have, however, not empirically explained such differences and the result is often a poor identification of the problems facing disadvantaged groups. Research has shown that transport disadvantage varies over time. The static nature of analysis using the activity space concept in previous research studies has lacked the ability to identify transport disadvantage in time. Activity space is a dynamic concept; and therefore possesses a great potential in capturing temporal variations in behaviour and access opportunities. This research derives measures of the size and fullness of activity spaces for 157 individuals for weekdays, weekends, and for a week using weekly activity–travel diary data from three case study areas located in rural Northern Ireland. Four focus groups were also conducted in order to triangulate quantitative findings and to explain the differences between different socio-spatial groups. The findings of this research show that despite having a smaller sized activity space, individuals were not disadvantaged because they were able to access their required activities locally. Car-ownership was found to be an important life line in rural areas. Temporal disaggregation of the data reveals that this is true only on weekends due to a lack of public transport services. In addition, despite activity spaces being at a similar size, the fullness of activity spaces of low-income individuals was found to be significantly lower compared to their high-income counterparts. Focus group data shows that financial constraint, poor connections both between public transport services and between transport routes and opportunities forced individuals to participate in activities located along the main transport corridors.
As a minimum, how much do rural households need to be able to afford adequate transport? This paper is drawn from the Minimum Income Standards (MIS) research programme, which primarily involves groups of members of the public reaching consensus about what households need for a minimum, socially acceptable standard of living. The paper looks at the additional needs and costs of rural households, compared with their urban counterparts, and focuses on the methodology used to research these costs. This discussion is framed in terms of transport disadvantage, and the Capability Approach. The results of the research are presented: how travel needs and costs vary for different household types; and how minimum transport costs impact on overall household budgets. The paper concludes by considering the possible application of the ‘MIS Rural’ approach in practice.
Facilitated by mobility, occupational participation outside the home is vital in old age. However, the relative importance of factors influencing mobility and occupational participation remains unclear. The present study describes older peoples' motives for, and experiences of, mobility and occupational participation outside the home. Nine focus-group interviews were conducted and analyzed using content analysis. Occupational participation and mobility was individually experienced, although some subjective perspectives were common. Continuing mobility and occupational participation outside the home in old age is an act of negotiation, encompassing occupational means and goals, occupational and mobility adaptation, as well as occupational barriers and facilitators.
A central argument of much contemporary literature is that the advent of digital and mobile technologies creates new kinds of mobile lives, new socialities and new ways of relating to the self and others. In this paper I specifically examine how mobile lives unfold through social networks, facilitating the forming and reforming of connections people have with others, near and distant. I argue that movement itself is not so significant. Its importance rather stems from how it enables people to be connected with each other, to meet and to remeet over time and across space. Movement makes connections. These connections form patterns or networks, which many commentators see as the critical feature of contemporary life. Much travel thus involves making new connections and extending one’s network or sustaining one’s existing networks.
In this article I discuss just why travel takes place. Why does travel occur, especially with the development of new communications technologies? I unpack how corporeal proximity in diverse modes appears to make travel necessary and desirable. I examine how aspects of conversational practice and of `meetings' make travel obligatory for sustaining `physical proximity'. I go on to consider the roles that travel plays in social networks, using Putnam's recent analysis of social capital. The implications of different kinds of travel for the distribution of such social capital are spelled out. I examine what kinds of corporeal travel are necessary and appropriate for a rich and densely networked social life across various social groups. And in the light of these analyses of proximity and social capital, virtual travel will not in a simple sense substitute for corporeal travel, since intermittent co-presence appears obligatory for many forms of social life. However, virtual travel does seem to produce a strange and uncanny life on the screen that is near and far, present and absent, and it may be that this will change the very nature of what is experienced as `co-presence'. I conclude by showing how issues of social inclusion and exclusion cannot be examined without identifying the complex, overlapping and contradictory mobilities necessarily involved in the patterning of an embodied social life.
This book argues that basic human needs can be shown to exist, that individuals have a right to the optimal satisfaction of these needs and that all human liberation should be measured by assessing the degree to which such satisfaction has occurred. Part I introduces the issue of individual and cultural relativity through examining and rejecting arguments that human needs are reducible to individual or collective preferences. In doing so, it explores the grammar of "need' in ordinary discourse, illustrating its relationship to more general arguments about relativism. Part II argues that "health' and "autonomy' constitute the most basic human needs which are the same for everyone. It is further argued that all humans have a right to optimum need-satisfaction. For this to occur, certain societal preconditions - political, economic and ecological - must be fulfilled. The theory of need that emerges is then operationalised in Part III. Human needs, it is argued, are neither subjective preferences best understood by each individual, nor static essences best understood by planners or party officials. They are universal and knowable, but our knowledge of them, and of the satisfiers necessary to meet them, is dynamic and open-ended. The book concludes by endorsing recent proposals for a mixed economy which also combines elements of both central planning and democratic decision-making - a "dual strategy' for the optimisation of need satisfaction. -from Authors
Understanding of social/spatial change in any area and the development of appropriate policies relating to transport require data on travel behaviour that are reasonably consistent over time. In reality, suitable ‘time-series’ data that permit ‘longitudinal’ studies of change in the same area(s) are very rare. This paper reports on a series of questionnaire surveys in two rural study areas in Northern Ireland, undertaken at three points in time between 1979 and 2001. The analysis covers changes in public transport and local services, accessibility, car ownership, travel distances to a range of destination facilities, transport modes used, travel frequencies and trip rates. Social groups expected to be mobility-deprived are identified for special attention. While the 1980s decade was marked by a dramatic switch from ‘traditional’ to ‘modern’ travel behaviour patterns, the 1990s were marked by a very rapid increase in car ownership and complex changes in travel patterns that are not easy to characterise.
Older people today are more active and more mobile than previous generations. However, they continue to suffer a reduction in quality of life when giving up driving. This article reports research carried out to identify the role of mobility and accessibility in older people's self-reported quality of life, through an in-depth examination of older people's travel needs. A wholly qualitative approach, utilising a variety of data collection methods including focus groups, interviews and diary completion, was employed with 57 people aged over 65 in the UK, of which 26 were drivers and 31 had recently given up driving. The findings emphasise the importance of mobility for accessing services and shops. However, the reasons why older people travel and the importance of mobility go beyond accessibility to include the desire for independence, control, maintaining status, inclusion, ‘normalness’ and travel for its own sake. All these are related to an individual's perception of quality of life. When older people give up driving, their self-reported quality of life is reduced and this seems very much related to a reduction in affective and aesthetic qualities of mobility that a car affords that walking and using public transport lack. It is suggested that policy and practice needs to consider such motives for travel.
Objective:
To examine cross sectional associations between mobility with or without disability and social engagement in a community-based sample of older adults.
Methods:
Social engagement of participants (n = 676) was outside the home (participation in organizations and use of senior centers) and in home (talking by phone and use of Internet). Logistic or proportional odds models evaluated the association between social engagement and position in the disablement process (no mobility limitations, mobility limitations/no disability, and mobility limitations/disability).
Results:
Low mobility was associated with lower level of social engagement of all forms (Odds ratio (OR) = 0.59, confidence intervals (CI): 0.41-0.85 for organizations; OR = 0.67, CI: 0.42-1.06 for senior center; OR = 0.47, CI: 0.32-0.70 for phone; OR = 0.38, CI: 0.23-0.65 for Internet). For social engagement outside the home, odds of engagement were further reduced for individuals with disability.
Discussion:
Low mobility is associated with low social engagement even in the absence of disability; associations with disability differed by type of social engagement.
Against a background of limited previous research, this paper examines the access to health and social care among older people in the farming communities of County Down, Northern Ireland. In-depth interviews were conducted with 45 people aged 60 or more years living on family farms to collect information about health care needs and service use and adequacy. In addition, interviews with service providers provided information on their perceptions of the farming communities' needs. The findings indicate that there are specific rural dimensions of access to services and that among the respondents there was substantial unmet need. For many farming families, using services is determined by much more than being able to reach them physically. The lack of reliable information, the culture of stoicism and the absence of appropriate services impeded obtaining effective support. Recent health care policies and strategies have stressed the importance of developing local services that are responsive to need in consultation with service users, but there is worryingly little evidence that this has occurred. It is concluded that if effective outcomes are to be achieved, policies must recognise the specific characteristics of rural populations and be sensitive to the needs, attitudes and expectations of farming families. The current lack of understanding about the distinct needs of these communities at present exacerbates the isolation and marginalisation of already vulnerable older people.
Preventing and alleviating social isolation and loneliness among older people is an important area for policy and practice, but the effectiveness of many interventions has been questioned because of the lack of evidence. A systematic review was conducted to determine the effectiveness of health promotion interventions that target social isolation and loneliness among older people. Quantitative outcome studies between 1970 and 2002 in any language were included. Articles were identified by searching electronic databases, journals and abstracts, and contact-ing key informants. Information was extracted and synthesised using a standard form. Thirty studies were identified and categorised as 'group ' (n=17) ; ' one-to-one ' (n=10) ; 'service provision' (n=3) ; and ' community development ' (n=1). Most were conducted in the USA and Canada, and their design, methods, quality and transferability varied considerably. Nine of the 10 effective interventions were group activities with an educational or support input. Six of the eight ineffective interventions provided one-to-one social support, advice and information, or health-needs assessment. The review suggests that educational and social activity group interventions that target specific groups can alleviate social isolation and loneliness among older people. The effectiveness of home visiting and befriending schemes remains unclear.
The concept of social capital has been used by numerous authors to investigate various topics. As yet, however, little attention has been paid to its relationship with mobility and social exclusion. Those findings which have been published suggest that the maintenance of social capital and associated networks within and between communities largely depends on mobility, but that local social networks are being undermined as a result of growing car ownership and use. This paper draws on the results of recent rural transport research to suggest that, at the same time, strong local social capital appears important in conferring mobility on certain social groups, especially those without access to a car. In the context of community transport, our analysis uses a geographic framework to attempt to explore these positions and reviews arising policy and research implications.
John Christman has argued that constitutively relational accounts of autonomy, as defended by some feminist theorists, are problematically perfectionist about the human good. I argue that autonomy is constitutively relational, but not in a way that implies perfectionism: autonomy depends on a dialogical disposition to hold oneself answerable to external, critical perspectives on one's action-guiding commitments. This type of relationality carries no substantive value commitments, yet it does answer to core feminist concerns about autonomy.
This article provides an overview and critical analysis of theories on economic development in rural regions in advanced countries. For this purpose, we have consulted literature in regional economics and the multidisciplinary field of rural studies. In order to analyse to which extent these theories are supported by empirical evidence, we have applied the method of pattern-matching to 18 case studies in leading and lagging rural regions in the EU. The matching results show that the mixed exogenous/endogenous development approach, the community-led development theory and the first hypothesis of Bryden's theory on the exploitation of social and cultural capital are widely supported by empirical evidence from the case studies. Broadly speaking, these theories relate economic development—given the availability of labour and capital—to a high capacity of local actors and strong internal and external networks.
The concept of quality of life is elusive and this paper reports on a study that has tried to deconstruct the concept in order to better understand what older people say quality of life means to them. The focus here is on the transport dimension where quality of life is broken down into mobility patterns, locality and social networks. The paper first sets the scene with a summary of secondary data and it then systematically presents data from interviews carried out with 1000 older people as part of the British Office for National Statistics Omnibus Surveys in Britain under the three headings mentioned above. A substantial amount of diversity and variation is found in the data by quality of life ratings and the expectations of the respondents. It is argued that both the active (travel related) and passive (locality and social networks) elements need to be brought together so that the quality of life for the elderly can be better understood.