Rural ageing in the United Kingdom 2009-2012

Hennessy, Catherine (2018). Rural ageing in the United Kingdom 2009-2012. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-853264

The impact of population ageing in rural areas is relatively under-researched in the UK. The aim of this interdisciplinary research programme is to investigate the circumstances, experiences and quality of life impact of older people's inclusion ('connectivity') in rural civic society. The research employs a mixed methods framework of quantitative and qualitative methods and perspectives from the arts and humanities, transport studies, the social and geographic sciences and informatics to characterise key aspects of older people's connectivities (ie, cultural, spatial, social, economic and technological) in rural community life and the role which these links play in facilitating civic engagement. The research is being carried out in six case study areas in South West England and Wales and addresses the following principal questions: (1) How and in what ways are older people connected to civic society in these rural settings? (2) What is the impact of this connectivity on older people's quality of life in rural areas? (3) How is later life experienced across diverse rural contexts and within subgroups of older people? (4) How can novel interdisciplinary approaches be used to capture and disseminate evidence about older people's participation in and contributions to rural civic society, ie, as a source of rural community capital?

Data description (abstract)

This collection includes qualitative and quantitative datasets from the Grey and Pleasant Land project, funded under the RCUK's New Dynamics of Ageing programme interdisciplinary research initiative. These data were collected to address the principal project research questions: (1) how and in what ways are older people connected to civic society in rural settings in England and Wales? (2)what is the impact of this connectivity on older people’s quality of life in rural areas? and (3) how is later life experienced across diverse rural contexts and within subgroups of older people? This archived collection comprises data from older people aged 60 and over in six project study sites (from 3 rural place types each [accessible, less accessible, remote and inaccessible] in southwest England and Wales). These include a face-to-face survey of 922 respondents and a supplementary telephone survey with a sub-sample of 419 (Workpackage 1); 68 oral histories focused on leisure over the lifecourse collected in one study site only (North Cornwall) (Workpackage 2); 54 qualitative interviews with older respondents focused on transport and mobility (Workpackage 3); 29 qualitative interviews with older respondents focused on welfare and well-being in rural areas (Workpackage 5); 5 qualitative interviews with policy actors on older people in the study locations in southwest England and Wales (Workpackage 5); threads from the research team's online discussion forum focused on interdisciplinary approaches to investigating rural ageing (Workpackage 7).

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