Local community participation of older village residents: Social differences and the role of expectations
通过对德国农村地区15位老年人的半结构化访谈，分析了他们在地方政治、社团和非正式社区活动中的参与方式，发现社会经济地位、性别和居住历史影响参与体验，且参与期望主要指向年轻人和新来者。
In rural areas characterised by ageing and declining populations and centralised public and private services, responsibilities for local processes are re-negotiated. In this context, older people's community participation and active ageing are increasingly encouraged in policy documents and discussed by researchers. This paper zooms in on the different ways in which older residents participate in their local communities in a rural region in Germany and how these are related to social differences, participation experiences and expectations. The structuring content analysis of 15 semi-structured interviews reveals that villagers participate, to different degrees, in three fields: local politics, associations and interest groups, and informal community activities. Individuals' experiences of participating in the community are identified as being shaped by complex interrelations between socioeconomic status, gender and residential history. Furthermore, older people's expectations to participate are found as mainly directed towards younger people and incomers. Descriptions of expectations they face encompass other residents' expectations as well as unspecified pressures due to limited means of the municipality. Interpreting these narrations of expectations as forms of responsibilisation, the analysis provides insights into ongoing re-negotiations of responsibilities and reveals the normativity of local community participation in a rural context. • Older village residents locally participate in politics, associations and interest groups, and informal community activities. • Their narrations reveal community participation as a normative field characterised by mutual expectations to participate. • Newcomer-stayer differences in local participation are strongly reflected upon. • Gender and status-related differences in local participation are rarely questioned.