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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Older men's participation in community life
— notions of social capital, health and empowerment | | Author(s) | Judith Sixsmith, Margaret Boneham |
| Journal title | Ageing International, vol 28, no 4, Fall 2003 |
| Pages | pp 372-388 |
| Keywords | Older men ; Poor elderly ; Participation ; Qualitative Studies ; Bolton. |
| Annotation | Findings are presented from a Health Development Agency project on the relationship between social capital, health and gender. This was a qualitative case study of a socially deprived housing estate in Bolton, Greater Manchester, involving interviews with 77 community members. Of these, 39 men took part, including 18 older men. For these older men, community life was constructed around health, family and employment status. The deterioration of their health status necessitated renegotiation of their sense of manhood within the context of community decline. Many failed to participate in community life, feeling physically vulnerable, undervalued and socially and psychologically disempowered. Moreover, mistrust of young men on the estate, together with perceived dominance of older women in community spaces, excluded the men from venues affording them the potential to develop social capital. For the few who did participate in community life, informal helping of neighbours was more common than collective action, thereby developing the capacity for building social networks, albeit on a limited basis. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-041202205 A |
| Classmark | BC: F:W6: TMB: 3DP: 83B |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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