scholarly journals Socioeconomic status and health inequalities among older people from Bangladeshi ethnic minority group in England

Author(s):  
Muhammad Z Hossain

The study aims to examine what socio-economic, health and psychological problems of older Bangladeshi (55 years and older) experience in later life and what members of the Bangladeshi community perceive to be the reasons for these difficulties. It also aims at finding out the extent to which gerontological theories, that highlight the problems associated with later life, reflect the experiences of older people across ethnic and cultural differences in the United Kingdom. The research has been carried out in the London Borough of Croydon where a small number of Bangladeshi communities live. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with older people from the mixer of men and women so as to answer the above research question i.e. the problems and the effects of ageing process far from home where they made their later life abode. In a qualitative semi - structured interview study in the London Borough of Croydon, 17 older persons from the Bangladeshi communities were asked about their problems of ageing and how they feel about living and growing old in a western country.

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Z Hossain

The study aims to examine what socio-economic, health and psychological problems of older Bangladeshi (55 years and older) experience in later life and what members of the Bangladeshi community perceive to be the reasons for these difficulties. It also aims at finding out the extent to which gerontological theories, that highlight the problems associated with later life, reflect the experiences of older people across ethnic and cultural differences in the United Kingdom. The research has been carried out in the London Borough of Croydon where a small number of Bangladeshi communities live. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with older people from the mixer of men and women so as to answer the above research question i.e. the problems and the effects of ageing process far from home where they made their later life abode. In a qualitative semi - structured interview study in the London Borough of Croydon, 17 older persons from the Bangladeshi communities were asked about their problems of ageing and how they feel about living and growing old in a western country.


2011 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth C.J. Pike

The proposal that older people should engage in “active aging” has come to dominate local, national, and international policy agendas. This encompasses a variety of ways that older persons might maintain active citizenship, but invariably promotes physical activity and exercise as having health and social benefits, despite a lack of conclusive evidence to support such claims. In this paper, I further examine the meaning of these claims through an analysis of policy documents, reports, and media articles which promote the perceived benefits of physical activity in later life. I revisit Cohen’s (2002) concepts of folk devils and moral panics to understand how these messages simultaneously problematize older people while creating a market for emergent moral entrepreneurs who claim to have the solution to the problem they have in part created. I conclude with recommendations for improved understanding of the benefits and appropriate provision for active aging.


2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (7) ◽  
pp. 1528-1551 ◽  
Author(s):  
CLAIRE PRESTON ◽  
STEPHEN MOORE

ABSTRACTThe drive to deliver services addressing loneliness in older people by telephone and online makes it increasingly relevant to consider how the mode of communication affects the way people interact with services and the capacity of services to meet their needs. This paper is based on the qualitative strand of a larger mixed-methods study of a national phoneline tackling loneliness in older people in the United Kingdom. The research comprised thematic analysis of four focus groups with staff and 42 semi-structured interviews with callers. It explored the associations between telephone-delivery, how individuals used the services and how the services were able to respond. To understand these associations, it was useful to identify some constituent characteristics of telephone communication in this context: namely its availability, reach and non-visual nature. This enabled various insights and comparison with other communication media. For example, the availability of the services attracted people seeking frequent emotional support but this presented challenges to staff. More positively, the ability of the services to connect disparate individuals enabled them to form different kinds of satisfying relationships. The evolution of mixed communication forms, such as internet-based voice communication and smartphone-based visual communication, makes analysis at the level of a technology's characteristics useful. Such a cross-cutting perspective can inform both the design of interventions and assessment of their suitability for different manifestations of loneliness.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-223
Author(s):  
Ryan Woolrych ◽  
Jamuna Duvurru ◽  
Adriana Portella ◽  
Judith Sixsmith ◽  
Deborah Menezes ◽  
...  

The ageing in place agenda emphasises the importance of supporting older adults to age in their communities surrounded by the personal resources to age well. In exploring the relationship between older people and their environment, the concept of place insideness is seen as central to constructing feelings of identity, belonging and attachment in old age. Yet there has been little research exploring how older adults experience place insideness across different urban, social and cultural contexts which is an impediment to identifying effective interventions for age-friendly cities and communities. This article explores how place insideness is experienced amongst older adults across India, Brazil and the United Kingdom. The article presents qualitative findings from 294 semi-structured interviews collected across 9 cities and 27 neighbourhoods. The findings reveal that older adults cultivate their sense of place insideness in old age through dimensions of physical insideness (i.e., environmental competence in navigating and engaging in the community), social insideness (i.e., knowing others) and autobiographical insideness (i.e., shared place histories). In drawing on older people’s understanding of their communities, this article explores the opportunities and challenges in developing a sense of place insideness to support ageing well. We identify implications for policy and practice in terms of how we can better design urban environments as age-friendly communities which support a greater sense of place for older people.


2012 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
TINE BUFFEL ◽  
CHRIS PHILLIPSON ◽  
THOMAS SCHARF

ABSTRACTThis article explores conceptual and empirical aspects of the social exclusion/inclusion debate in later life, with a particular focus on issues of place and space in urban settings. Exploratory findings are reported from two empirical studies in Belgium and England, which sought to examine experiences of social exclusion and inclusion among people aged 60 and over living in deprived inner-city neighbourhoods. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with an ethnically diverse sample of 102 older people in Belgium and 124 in England. Thematic analysis of interview data identifies four issues in relation to the neighbourhood dimension of social exclusion/inclusion in later life: experiences of community change; feelings of security and safety; the management of urban space; and strategies of control. The results suggest that neighbourhoods have a significant influence on shaping the experience of exclusion and inclusion in later life, with a number of similarities identified across the different study areas. The article concludes by discussing conceptual and policy issues raised by the research.


Author(s):  
Tej Kumar Karki

Purpose This paper has carried out a case study of two flood-prone towns in Johor state, Malaysia, to understand how resilient the residents and local authorities were in dealing with the flood disasters in terms of their ability to anticipate, mobilize institutional resources, adapt and respond. Design/methodology/approach This research conducted semi-structured interviews with flood-affected residents, flood disaster managers and planners, and assessed land use regulations and institutional strengths to answer the research question. Findings The results showed that the residents’ anticipatory capacity to flood risks was weak and both the human and institutional resources were insufficient in coping with and responding to urban flooding. Research limitations/implications This research has not carried out questionnaire survey of large number of residents. It is based on semi-structured interview of ten residents in two Malaysian cities. Practical implications The insights drawn from this research would help develop flood-resilient policies for Malaysian cities. The global communities exposed to flood disasters too benefit from the Malaysia’s minute but crucial human and institutional experiences in urban flooding. Social implications Being resilient to all these small but important flood concerns has huge potential to reduce vulnerability and disaster risks and protect the lives and properties of flood affected urban residents. Originality/value The research focus in Malaysia is less on flood resilience and more on flood modeling and hydrology analysis. In this sense, this research is new because it talks more on flood vulnerability and resilience issues at the community level and gives a perspective on current Malaysian town's state of flood resilience culture and practices.


2003 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 761-778 ◽  
Author(s):  
PAUL HIGGS ◽  
GILL MEIN ◽  
JANE FERRIE ◽  
MARTIN HYDE ◽  
JAMES NAZROO

The context of this paper is the changing nature of later life in the United Kingdom. It examines some of the broader issues of early retirement. While there has been considerable debate about the restructuring of employment during the latter part of the 20th century which led to a shake-out of older workers from the labour force, less attention has been given to those who take voluntary early retirement. Given the importance of early retirement to the economy and to social policy, it is important to find out how individuals make retirement decisions. The paper examines the results of a semi-structured interview study of the decisions made by a purposively drawn sample of British civil servants who are participants in the Whitehall II study. The sample included participants who chose early retirement and those who did not. From the interview data, ideal types of possible routes into retirement have been constructed. Illustrating these ideal types, individual life histories are drawn upon to show how responses to the issues surrounding retirement feature in people's lives. It is argued that decisions about early retirement are not made in a vacuum, neither are they free from pressures or inducements. Some are to do with organisational restructuring, some are about financial offers, and some are influenced by the opportunities for leisure and self-fulfilment that early retirement offers. The paper concludes by arguing that early retirement needs to be studied as a process involving the interplay between structure and agency.


Polar Record ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shahnaj Begum

ABSTRACTThis paper addresses the transformation that has occurred in livelihoods in the Nordic Arctic, showing how it affects gender equality among the region's older people. The region's population includes the Sámi, an indigenous people, who have traditionally relied for their livelihood on activities such as reindeer herding, making handicrafts, farming, fishing, hunting, trapping and gathering. In recent years these have faced enormous challenges because of the rapid transformation of the region in the wake of climate change and globalisation. Overall, these and other processes have precipitated socio-economic, cultural, environmental and infrastructural changes that are transforming the local economies and severely impacting older people in particular. The main research question examined in this article is whether gender inequality has arisen among older people because of the ongoing transformation of livelihoods. To this end, the paper provides an empirical analysis based on experiences gathered from field studies conducted by the author in Finnish and Swedish Lapland. The research also presents the experiences of older persons in light of the standard set by General Recommendation 27 of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, which oversees the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. The Recommendation sets out the right of older women to equality and non-discrimination. The findings of the present research contribute to filling a gap in the literature on the topic.


2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheila J. Gewolb

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how older workers and people who have already retired speak about ageing and change and their experience of retirement. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative study is described in which focus groups with older workers and semi-structured interviews with retired people were carried out. The recorded data were analysed using a linguistic approach (Discourse Analysis), which investigates in detail how people express their views and opinions and how their discourse might relate to societal attitudes towards ageing and retirement. Findings – Many older people who were still at work were concerned that they would decline and become senile once they retired unless they could remain active in some way. This was confirmed by people who had already retired and who spoke about how keeping busy and active had resulted in successful retirement and ageing. Research limitations/implications – Participants from four focus groups and five interview respondents represent only a small sample of older people who are still working or who are retired. This means that the results of this study cannot be extended to include all older workers and retired people. Social implications – This study will help to raise awareness of the concerns of older workers who may be nearing retirement, and how keeping busy and active after leaving work is considered by retirees to be part of successful retirement and helping to combat decline. Originality/value – A study of this nature which examines how older workers express their views about retirement using Discourse Analysis is original and may be used as a method for future research into other aspects of being older at work.


Author(s):  
Wadad Kathy Tannous ◽  
Kathleen Quilty

In 2019, the number of people in the world aged over 65 was 703 million. By 2050, this number is projected to be 1.5 billion. However, it is not only the number of older persons but the proportion that is changing. Italy was the first country to experience a demographic milestone known as the ‘Historic Reversal', reporting in 1995 that the population of people aged 65 years and older outnumbered children under the age of 15 for the first time ever. By 2050, this number is expected to reach 90 countries. This social ‘megatrend' collides with another shifting paradigm: technological advancement, accelerating every year at an extraordinary pace. While this trend of continuous technological evolution is not developing uniformly around the world, the scope of potential support that new and emergent technologies can bring to older adults is enormous. This chapter explores key areas of consideration to ensure that the promise of the digital future is realised for older people and that it is an enabling force, rather than a barrier to enjoying a longer, more supported later life.


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