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Introduction: People with dementia of all ages have a human right to equal access to quality health care. Despite evidence regarding its effectiveness, many people living with dementia are unable to access rehabilitation for promoting function and quality of life. Conducted in Australia, this study was designed to (1) explore barriers to access to dementia rehabilitation and (2) identify solutions that improve access to rehabilitation. Methods: People living with dementia (n = 5) and care partners (n = 8) and health professionals (n = 13) were recruited nationally. Experience‐based codesign across three virtual workshops was used to understand barriers and design solutions to improve access to rehabilitation treatments. Socio‐ecological analyses, using the Levesque Access to Health care framework, were applied to findings regarding barriers and to aid selection of solutions. Results: There was high attendance (92.3%) across the three workshops. Barriers were identified at a user level (including lack of knowledge, transport, cost and difficulty navigating the health, aged care and disability sectors) and health service level (including health professional low dementia knowledge and negative attitudes, inequitable funding models and non‐existent or fragmented services). Solutions focused on widespread dementia education and training, including ensuring that people with dementia and their care partners know about rehabilitation therapies and that health professionals, aged care and disability co‐ordinators know how to refer to and deliver rehabilitation interventions. Dementia care navigators, changes to Australia's public funding models and specific dementia rehabilitation programmes were also recommended. Conclusions: Barriers to accessing rehabilitation for people with dementia exist at multiple levels and will require a whole‐community and systems approach to ensure change. Patient or Public Contribution: People with living experience (preferred term by those involved) were involved at two levels within this research. A Chief Investigator living with dementia was involved in the design of the study and writing of the manuscript. People with living experience, care partners and service providers were participants in the codesign process to identify barriers and design potential solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article engages Göran Therborn's conceptualisation of existential inequality to explore lived experiences of loneliness in later life. Existential inequality refers to unequal social distribution of personhood, from dignity to autonomy. We argue sociological approaches, like inequality frameworks, are critical to grasp the social nature of loneliness – often missing in related literature. Investigating how people perceive and respond to their loneliness provides a comprehensive understanding of the links between personal/agentic and social/structural dimensions. We apply the idea of existential inequality to two case studies with older people (aged 65+) reporting prolonged loneliness: one encompassing ethnographic data and interviews with care home residents, and a second focusing on diaries produced by older people living alone. Employing existential inequality to frame how older people define, experience and manage loneliness highlights an assemblage of stigmas and marginalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In educational gerontology, non-formal education emerges as a possibility for lifelong learning because it is more flexible and less bureaucratic than formal education. In this context, agile culture offers a potential strategy to enhance non-formal education. While there are four manifestos for agile culture in education, their application in later life is lacking in the literature. The objective is to discuss the agile culture in education and present the concept of the agile manifesto for non-formal education in later life. A co-design process was conducted to develop this manifesto, in which specialists in education, educational gerontology and agile culture, as well as an older person, participated in an active and collaborative way. The manifesto, which has four values and 18 principles, will serve as a guide for educators who intend to develop educational activities based on agile culture, for older adults, in the non-formal instance. It is proposed that the agile culture of non-formal education for older adults is fundamentally about collaboration, democracy, independence and autonomy, considering the needs of everyday life, as well as the multidimensionality and heterogeneity of those involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how practices of family photography are being transformed in the digital sphere, specifically on Instagram. While research on 'digital intimacies' focusses on romantic or peer interactions, the digital practices of families – especially intergenerational interactions – remain understudied. We use Janet Finch's notion of 'family display' to consider how Instagram affords new modes of performing and sharing family life. This concept has exciting potential for media-rich online spaces, but so far, only a few studies examine how social media platforms extend the display of family practices. To explore family photography on Instagram, we analyse a sample of 200 Instagram posts. We argue that features specific to photo-sharing in digital spaces, such as hashtags, emojis and captions, open up new aspects of and audiences for family display. Our analysis paves the way for future research about how relationships are displayed across a range of digital platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives While research on loneliness in later life has increased during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, we still lack diverse qualitative approaches capturing lived experiences of lonely older adults. Approaches to research with older adults instead of on them are also scant in gerontological literature on loneliness. Through solicited diaries, this study aimed to explore how older Australians who were already lonely before the pandemic managed lockdowns (stay-at-home orders) in Victoria, Australia, which lived through one of the longest lockdowns in the world. Research Design and Methods This article is based on qualitative diaries completed by 32 older adults (aged 65 and older). Diaries provide a 'live' document where participants become active research partners, recording and sharing their perceptions and experiences. This method is useful to capture sensitive issues, but to the best of our knowledge has not been employed in loneliness studies. Data were thematically analyzed through the identification of themes within and across diaries. Results Loneliness was defined by participants as a detrimental absence of companionship and meaningful social interactions. For most, lockdowns exacerbated loneliness, presented new triggers, and upended coping strategies. The disruption of the 'emotion work' involved with managing loneliness led to a reconfiguration of response strategies, including through digital technology, which brought both challenges (e.g. digital ageism) and opportunities (e.g. novel communication forms). Discussion and Implications Understanding how older people living alone define and respond to loneliness in diverse contexts―for example, before and during a pandemic that restricts social interaction―provides critical insights to inform interventions to tackle loneliness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Loneliness, and its stigmatising nature, has long been of interest to sociology, with germinal contributions by writers such as Robert Weiss. Yet, the social stigma of loneliness remains under-theorised. Furthermore, recent scholarship on loneliness is dominated by psychological perspectives that often overlook the social role of stigma and its entanglement with factors like age-related norms and contexts. To address these gaps, we develop a conceptual understanding of the stigma of loneliness in later life. We focus on older people (65+) since loneliness is strongly linked with assumed age-related decline – illness, ‘uselessness’ and increasing isolation – which research suggests is more likely to be internalised in later life. In developing our conceptual lens, we creatively combine Erving Goffman and Imogen Tyler’s work on stigma. Such reconfiguration integrates relationality and power within micro and macro approaches, pushing forward sociological boundaries on stigma. It also foregrounds the connections between agentic and structural elements of stigma, which have been missing in loneliness studies. Through this lens, we derive key dimensions of the stigma of loneliness: enaction, reception and management. To apply our framework, we draw on interviews, diaries and ethnographic data capturing persistent loneliness among older people living alone and in care homes. Findings illuminate the complexity of loneliness stigma in later life contexts, offering new research and policy directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite increasing social pressure to use new digital technologies, older people's adoption of them remains below other age groups. This article contributes a sociological dimension to exploring what facilitates learning and using digital technology in later life. We focus on the understudied group of older people who are frail, living in care homes and most likely to be digitally excluded or restricted. Drawing on data from a longitudinal mixed methods study of a co-designed communication app for older people, we explore how attempts to bridge the 'digital divide' unfold in time. Using the concept of affordances, we show how adoption of a new communication technology is shaped by its design, learning contexts and surrounding social actors. With this work we contribute to novel sociological understandings of technology adoption that are critical for digital inequality research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social capital captures the value of relationships. Although research has examined social capital among adults, comparatively little attention has been paid to social capital among young adults—particularly from a longitudinal and mixed-methods perspective. As social capital predicts educational achievement, employment, and psychosocial well-being, it is an important construct to study alongside youth transition(s). Following a Bourdieusian approach, we define social capital as the resources potentially available in our ties that can be mobilized when necessary. To examine social capital in transition to adulthood, we draw on survey (n = 1,650, at ages 17 and 21) and interview (n = 70, at age 24) data from a cohort of Portuguese youth. We study the two main dimensions of social capital: bonding and bridging. Survey data were analyzed with latent class modeling, logistic regressions, and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests, and interviews with thematic analysis. Findings show that respondents reported receiving more emotional support than financial support from their networks, but that both types of support increased over time. Perceived bonding and bridging also changed positively in transition to adulthood. In addition, gender and parental education predicted bonding and bridging. We contextualize these results with qualitative meanings and experiences of social capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The risks of social isolation and loneliness are becoming emergent issues for older adults (aged 65+) in industrialized countries, particularly for oldest old people (80+) who are frail and institutionalized. Socially isolated and lonely older people are more likely to experience depression, social disengagement, cognitive and physical decline, morbidity, and early mortality. In response to these significant negative health and socioeconomic costs, research suggests using new technologies to enhance opportunities for social connectedness as a strategy to help alleviate both social isolation and loneliness. In this context, following a participatory design method, we developed an accessible communication app with and for frail institutionalized older adults. To test the adoption of this innovative technology and its feasibility to address social isolation and loneliness, we conducted a two-month deployment of the app in a long-term care home with five oldest old and their relatives. Due to access, recruitment, and ethical challenges, the oldest old are a specially understudied group. Using an embedded case study (based on interviews, psychometric scales, field observations, and usability and accessibility testing) and a recursive approach to technology studies, our findings show that technology adoption is based on a complex set of interrelated factors: social, attitudinal, physical, digital literacy, and usability. We also discuss the feasibility of the app to enhance perceived social connectedness amongst our target population, provided that at least one strong tie is involved and communication norms and expectations across generations are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]