 Resilience from the point of view of older people: ‘There's still life beyond a funny knee’Janine L. Wiles, Kirsty Wild, Ngaire Kerse and Ruth E.S. Allen Social Science & Medicine, 2012, vol. 74, issue 3, 416-424 Abstract: Resilience is a concept of growing interest in relation to older people and within the context of population ageing. In this paper we explore older people's understandings and experiences of resilience, drawing on interviews and participant-led focus groups with 121 older people living in two case-study communities in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Close reading of extended conversations about what characterises resilience, such as positive attitude, counting blessings or keeping busy, reveal how all of these apparently internal or personal characteristics are deeply embedded in social and physical contexts. We argue that resilience should be seen as a contextualised process which can be both individual and environmental. Older people's experiences highlight the need to consider the effectiveness of environmental community resources and social–political structures such as state-funded service availability, as well as the personal characteristics that are usually focused on when considering resilience in old age. We also argue that it is important to consider different aspects of resilience, so that a person or group might face constraints in one area, such as physical or economic wellbeing, but be strong in other areas such as social relationships or mobility. Resilience can mean acknowledging and incorporating ‘vulnerability’ and balancing wellbeing across a range of areas. Thus even those living with significant illness or hardship can be understood to be ageing well and indeed to be resilient. Far from using resilience as a narrow measure against which to succeed or fail, resilience is a useful concept framing how ageing well can incorporate multidimensional pathways including both vulnerability and flourishing. We must pay adequate attention to the broader physical and social contexts and scales that underpin – or undermine – individual resilience. Keywords: Resilience; Resilient; Older; Ageing; Adaptation; Environment; New Zealand (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:74:y:2012:i:3:p:416-424 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.11.005 Access Statistics for this article Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier |
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