Practices of Participation and Voluntarism among Older People in Rural Wales: Choice, Obligation and Constraints to Active Ageing

Abstract

Rural ageing is a significant issue for policy makers and academics, with the increasing proportion of older residents in rural areas placing heightened demands on service provision at a time of economic austerity. In this context, participation and volunteering in older age has been drawn into policy focus. Alongside broader discourses of social capital and active citizenship, the prospect of active ageing has emerged as a key component in the delivery of community‐based services under neoliberal welfare agendas. However, moves to formalise participation among the elderly are at risk of undermining everyday practices of voluntarism. Furthermore, the diversity of the older population means that the willingness and capacity of rural communities and individuals to undertake forms of voluntarism will vary considerably. These issues arise in rural Wales, where notions of participation have become intertwined with Welsh Government initiatives for community regeneration. Through empirical research, this article considers the different motivations of older people for engaging in forms of community participation, as well as constraints to these activities. In concluding, we reflect on the implications for local civil society in Wales.

Potential and Impediments to Senior Citizens’ Volunteering to Maintain Basic Services in Shrinking Regions

“…At the same time, ageing boosts demand for a range of age‐related services, such as healthcare facilities and mobility services for the disabled. By contrast, policy‐makers, in particular, and some scientists stress the potential of the growing cohort of senior citizens to sustain basic services (e.g., IRAP ; Butler and Eckart ; Fischer and Foth ; Jones and Heley ). They argue that some retirees possess the resources and motivation for volunteering.…”

“…While a large body of studies has analysed the motivations for retirees’ volunteer work (e.g., Kovacs and Black ; Duarte‐Alonso and Nyanjom ; Jones and Heley ), not much attention has been paid to the spatial context of peripheral rural regions (for exceptions, see Jones and Heley ; Schwarzenberg et al ). Further gaps cited in the literature concern the links between senior citizens’ volunteering and the field of basic service provision (Heley and Jones ; Jones and Heley ), the volunteers’ subjective perspectives of their activities (Steinführer ) as well as the interrelations between volunteering, informal support structures and other everyday practices in retirement (Jones and Heley ). Furthermore, the various discourses are strongly characterised by quantitative analysis and a lack of in‐depth case studies (Fischer and Foth ).…”

Determinants of resilience for people ageing in remote places: a case study in northern Australia

“…In many of these reported cases, the volunteer work of retirees has served to reinvigorate the community economically and socially. Increasingly, however, the era of austerity and cost-cutting measures by governments are pushing out welfare responsibilities to community, with policy moves in the UK, Canada and other developed countries to mobilise the volunteer sector in the social care of older people (Jones & Heley 2016;Milbourne 2016;Skinner & Joseph 2011).…”

“…However, the redefinition of the community's roles in providing social care within neoliberal health and social policy means volunteering becomes an obligation rather than choice for retirees (Jones & Heley 2016). It has no consideration of the impact of choice and motive in an older person's participation in volunteering, nor does it allow for diversity of age, resilience and physical well-being as variables impacting on people's capacity to volunteer.…”

“…"Active ageing" normalises success through social participation and activity that leads to the preservation of autonomy and selfdetermination. These programmes form part of the politicised discourse that, it is argued (Jones & Heley 2016;Stephens et al 2015), has the effect of placing expectations squarely on older people to preserve their independence and manage indefinitely, the challenges encroaching on their health, thereby avoiding adding to society's ageing problem of increasing rates of social welfare dependency.…”