Social exclusion and ageing in diverse rural communities: Findings from a cross-border study in Ireland and Northern Ireland

Abstract

Currently, our understanding of social exclusion and how it affects the lives of older people in diverse rural settings in Ireland and Northern Ireland is poorly developed and based primarily on anecdotal and fragmented evidence. We have little knowledge of how age, the life-course and place - individually and in combination - impact on the potential for rural-dwelling older people to experience exclusion in later life. Nor do we have insight into how older people conceptualise, react to and deal with exclusion, or how communities view advantage and disadvantage in later life. How the relationship between older people and their communities influences the experience of social exclusion in rural areas is also largely unknown. Arising from such knowledge deficits, we cannot be sure if being older and living in rural communities increases or decreases the potential for exclusion in later life, nor whether rural places are good or bad places in which to grow old.