CIVEX
Exclusion from civic engagement of a diverse older population: Features, experiences and policy implications
Project description
The European CIVEX-project (2021-2024) aims to examine the characteristics and experiences of inclusion and exclusion from multidimensional civic engagement in later life, and to identify evidence-based policy measures to address exclusion from civic engagement.
The project sheds light on the ways in which older people civically engage, and what obstacles they experience in doing so. The main focus is on older people who either 1) live in long-term care housing, 2) receive professional care at home, 3) live in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas, or 4) have a non-European migration background. Within CIVEX, volunteering activities, membership of an association, political engagement, digital engagement, and informal help are seen as a part of multidimensional civic engagement.
The main qualitative methods involve semi-structured life story interviews and life diagrams, in order to understand how life events shape civic engagement. For the quantitative work package, secondary data from databases like SHARE (Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe), EQLS (European Quality of Life Survey), ELSA (English Longitudinal Study Of Ageing) will be analyzed. Using latent class and multilevel analysis, the goal is to identify various profiles of multidimensional civic engagement at different levels, through examining micro-, meso-, and macro-level variables associated with older people's exclusion from multidimensional civic engagement.
This research project is funded under the Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) "More Years, Better Lives.
Keywords
Civic engagement, older people, social exclusion, social inclusion
Partners
- University of Barcelona - Professor lector Rodrigo Serrat (Principal Investigator)
- Åbo Akademi University – Associate Professor Frederica Nyqvist
- Newcastle University – Professor Thomas Scharf
- Uppsala University – Prof. Sandra Torres
- JPI “More Years Better Lives” - Johan Fritzell (Scientific Advisory Board)
Want to know more?
Contact persons
Prof. Dr. Sarah Dury - sarah.dury@vub.be
Bas Dikmans - bas.dikmans@vub.be
Toon Vercauteren –toon.vercauteren@vub.be