Reversed Mobilities as a Means to Combat Older People’s Exclusion from Services: Insights from Two Alpine Territories in France and Italy

Abstract

Older people’s social exclusion in mountain areas is often the result of service inaccessibility. Mountain territories are indeed partly characterised by a low availability of services and high transport constraints. In this environment, older people, with a lower capacity for mobility (such as impaired or not autonomous individuals), require a set of reversed mobilities, where the mobility of relatives, caregivers or shops ensures, at least indirectly, their access to relevant services. This chapter aims to stress how reversed mobilities may promote older people’s inclusion in mountain areas and contribute to a better understanding of exclusion from services. In particular, we will emphasise: (1) the interaction between different factors in constructing service inaccessibility as an exclusionary process in the lives of mountain dwelling older people; (2) the key role played by reversed mobilities in combatting older people’s experience of exclusion from services in mountain areas, as well as the environmental, economic and social costs and “new” inequalities that might be associated with this form of adaptation. Our analysis is underpinned by a focus on two European Alpine territories (Isère, France; Bergamo, Italy) as exploratory examples. The extension of our arguments to other socio-cultural contexts is also considered.