Living at the Margins or Elevated Citizenship? Challenges and Opportunities for Social Participation Experienced by Older Adults in Ghana

Autor: Paul Alhassan Issahaku
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Ageing International. 47:630-652
ISSN: 1936-606X
0163-5158
DOI: 10.1007/s12126-021-09443-9
Popis: This study contributes to the literature on challenges and opportunities for social participation experienced by older adults in Ghana and provides useful lessons for theory and practice. The study explored this topic using a descriptive phenomenology approach. A purposive sample of 23 older adults aged 60 years and above participated in semi-structured interviews to provide data for the study. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed for analysis. Data were analyzed following descriptive phenomenology principles, such as paying attention to experiential detail and the personal and relational significance of experience as described, and using existing literature as heuristic to reformulate and gain insight into the general and unique characteristics of experience as described by participants. Two themes emerged from the data. Living at the margins emerged from the descriptions of challenges whose subthemes included health problems, isolation, and poverty. Elevated citizenship emerged from the descriptions of opportunities whose subthemes were acts of reciprocity, recognition, and preferential treatment. The paper discusses how these themes underlie both social exclusion and social participation among participants.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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