''You have to engage with life, or life will go away'': An intersectional life course analysis of older women's social participation in a disadvantaged urban area

TY - JOUR

T1 - ''You have to engage with life, or life will go away''

T2 - An intersectional life course analysis of older women's social participation in a disadvantaged urban area

AU - Ziegler, Friederike

PY - 2012/11

Y1 - 2012/11

N2 - Social participation in later life has been studied as part of discourses around 'active ageing' but the promotion of participation in disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods meets with particular challenges. In this paper I argue that in order to effectively promote social participation in later life researchers and practitioners require an understanding of life-long relational practices which are embedded in social norms and places as they intersect with identities such as gender, class and age. The intersectional life course analysis traces complex relationalities between people and place across the life course of two women living in disadvantaged urban areas. It shows the effects of societal and structural changes on individuals' opportunities for social participation as well as demonstrating how age-related relational practices may lead to spatial segregation of older people in society.

AB - Social participation in later life has been studied as part of discourses around 'active ageing' but the promotion of participation in disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods meets with particular challenges. In this paper I argue that in order to effectively promote social participation in later life researchers and practitioners require an understanding of life-long relational practices which are embedded in social norms and places as they intersect with identities such as gender, class and age. The intersectional life course analysis traces complex relationalities between people and place across the life course of two women living in disadvantaged urban areas. It shows the effects of societal and structural changes on individuals' opportunities for social participation as well as demonstrating how age-related relational practices may lead to spatial segregation of older people in society.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84860170317&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.geoforum.2012.03.013

DO - 10.1016/j.geoforum.2012.03.013

M3 - Article

VL - 43

SP - 1296

EP - 1305

JO - Geoforum

JF - Geoforum

IS - 6

ER -