Social Participation of the Elderly: Approaches to Analysis and Assessment Tools

Abstract

Studies of older people’s social participation have only recently entered the field of Russian sociology, although the concept, approaches, and empirical indicators are debatable; additionally. significant foreign experience is not represented in the domestic scientific space. The purpose of the article is to systematically describe modern approaches to the analysis, measurement, and assessment of social participation of older people. Among the foreign approaches to the analysis of social participation, the sociological and political are well known; in the studies of older people’s participation, the correlated but more flexible socio-consumer, inclusive, and empowerment approaches are used, each offering its own content of the concept and assessment tools. The social consumer approach considers the social participation of an older person as a way to meet their basic personal and significant needs, and relies on standard methods in assessing functionality and health. The inclusive approach focuses on participation as a tool for social integration and self-realization, and combines quantitative and qualitative survey methods. The empowerment approach addresses seniors as actors of social changes, and relies on a critical analysis of engagement, including access to resources, power, and participation itself, based on the methodology of citizen participation. The understanding of participation in old age as a variety of activities of different levels (from involvement to engagement) and forms (direct and mediated, public, and nonpublic) on the basis of integration of social-consumer, inclusive, and empowerment approaches will allow taking into account personal, socio-environmental, and institutional participation factors flexibly, to notice “invisible” contributions, and to reconsider stereotypes of social passivity of older people. This leads to the designing of participation spaces on the principles of age-friendliness and co-productivity, allowing older people to perform and feel like social actors.