Civic Engagement in Later Life: Expanding the Social Gerontological Imagination

Older adults’ civic engagement has become a key topic in social gerontology in the last fifty years. Civic engagement by older people underpins ideas about age friendly communities, and social inclusion in later life. Indeed, international organizations, such as the the World Health Organization or United Nations have placed the understanding and promotion of civic engagement in later life at the center of their policies to promote active and successful forms of ageing. However, there are still many gaps in our current understanding of this phenomenon. First, civic engagement has often been equated to volunteering, disregarding the multidimensionality of the concept and thus the many other ways in which older people could contribute to their communities. Second, most previous studies on older people’s civic engagement focus exclusively on later life conditions and experiences to understand this phenomenon, with little research addressing civic engagement trajectories and dynamics along the life-cycle. Third, older people’s diversity has been scarcely considered, with few studies addressing the challenges that potentially marginalized groups of older people may confront to their full inclusion in civic activities. Finally, research on this topic has mainly emanated from Anglo-Saxon countries, being other regions and countries of the world often underrepresented, and cross-cultural and comparative approaches nearly absent. This thematic session invites submissions expanding research on older adults’ civic engagement along any of these lines. We welcome thus presentations addressing civic engagement in later life as a multidimensional, life-course, diverse, and culturally embedded phenomenon.