Support and Engagement
Asynchronous Session
Joy and Hardship: Older Adults using Food Pantries in the US View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Madonna Harrington Meyer, Winston Scott
In 2022, 9% of US households with adults ages 65 and older were food insecure (Rabbit et al. 2023). Moreover, 22% of older adults experience food insecurity at some point in their 60s and 70s (Levy 2022). Roughly 7% of all US households augment their food supplies by going to food pantries (Coleman-Jensen and Rabbitt 2021). Among all households with low food security, 36% go to food pantries and among all households with very low food security 45% go to food pantries (Coleman-Jensen and Rabbitt 2021). Food pantry users have continued to age since the Great Recession of 2008-9; by 2020, 15% of all older adults received food from food pantries (Heflin and Harrington Meyer forthcoming). Based on in-depth interviews with a national but non-random sample of 63 adults ages 60 and older with incomes below 130% of the federal poverty line, I found that food pantries vary markedly. Many of my respondents reported great satisfaction with their food pantries. Satisfactions included an abundance of healthy fresh food, free household and personal supplies, connections to other social services, and volunteering at food pantries in exchange for food. However, many reported great challenges as well, including lack of fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats, food that is about to expire, food that adversely affects health, poor transportation and mobility, administrative burden, and long waits to get food. Policy solutions draw on the upcoming book, Food for Thought: Understanding Older Adult Food Insecurity, by Colleen M. Heflin and Madonna Harrington Meyer.
Migrant Agency and Experiences of Sponsored Older Chinese Immigrants in Canada: Challenges, Adaptation, and Resistance View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ivy Li
In its examination of older immigrants’ experiences, the literature concentrates on their hardships and challenges and seldom on their positive attitude, strategies, active adaptation and resistance. My study fills the gap by analyzing their performance of agency and autonomy to challenge systemic power and pursue meaningful existence. I prioritize their resistance against framing as dependent and forced dependence by the parents/grandparents (PGP) immigration program. I focus mainly on their daily challenges and major concerns as they develop strategies both to adapt and to resist, and look at the re-entry by some of them into the labour market and their participation and leadership in building their local Chinese community, both of which demonstrate their resistance to forced dependence. My study makes it clear that the majority of sponsored PGPs exhibit a positive outlook on their life in Canada and demonstrate robust agency, autonomy, adaptation, and resistance to forced dependence in three ways – individually, in small groups, and through community engagement and building. Nonetheless, they still face impediments to independence, security, and worry-free existence. These challenges surpass their control and capacity, necessitating collective support for them from the state, rather than having them rely on sponsoring offspring. I argue that the PGP program reflects embedded neoliberal friction: a state claims to facilitate self-responsibility and -reliance among the governed, but fails to nurture their agency and enhance their autonomy and independence by eschewing its collective responsibility, which undermines their well-being. My study calls for a more sustainable policy to facilitate their age-well.
Ageing Workforce, Absent Strategies? Investigating Age Management Awareness in Private Sector in Tekirdağ, Türkiye View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Yelda Bektaş
This study investigates how companies in Tekirdağ, Türkiye perceive and respond to the challenges posed by an ageing workforce. In light of Türkiye’s rapidly shifting demographic structure, the research explores whether private sector employers have begun to develop strategies for age management or whether the issue remains overlooked in organizational planning. Using a qualitative case study approach, the study draws on semi-structured interviews with human resources professionals, managers, and administrative staff across various sectors, complemented by analysis of company documents and policy reports. Findings suggest that awareness of age-related workforce challenges is limited, and formal age management policies are largely absent. Most companies rely on generic occupational health and safety practices without integrating age-specific measures such as ergonomic adjustments, training for older workers, or flexible retirement pathways. While some employers acknowledge the potential value of older workers, ageist attitudes and short-term labor needs often dominate hiring and retention practices. The study highlights a critical gap in employer preparedness for demographic change and underscores the need for national and regional policy frameworks that support organizational adaptation. It argues that without strategic planning at the firm level, the sustainability of labor markets in ageing societies like Türkiye will remain vulnerable.
Robots, ICT and Aging: How Do Advanced Technologies Interact with Aging View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Hongyan Lu
This paper investigates whether introducing high technologies affect the impact of population aging on productivity. We examine the interactions between age-skill labor groups and high-tech capital represented by ICT and industrial robots in 12 OECD countries from 2008 to 2020 through country-industry fixed effects. From sector-level data analysis, we find that ICT adoption reduces the productivity contribution of mid-aged workers, while robot adoption enhances the contribution of high-skilled workers. When considering ICT and robot adoption, simultaneous adoption benefits lowerproductivity worker groups, thus narrowing the productivity gap between different ageskill groups. Moreover, using two-digit level manufacturing data, we observe that the combined effect of high-skilled mid-aged workers on productivity remains negative, with a larger magnitude than that observed in sector-level analysis. We suggest governments and firms consider this group's adaptability when introducing high technologies and provide appropriate training programs to support them.
Featured Community-based Dementia Care and the Inclusion of People with Dementia in Nigeria View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ellis Onyedikachi George
The experiences of people with dementia are not limited to neurological issues, but also significantly include aspects influenced by mundane social interactions contained in everyday life. Yet, dementia scholarship in Nigeria focuses predominantly on neurological and biomedical concerns. While research on social aspects of dementia, such as care, is on the increase in Nigeria, most draw on the views of carers without including the perspectives of people with dementia. This study uses the perspectives of people with dementia and family and community members to illustrate the community’s role in the inclusion of people with dementia. The study draws on data collected during fieldwork in a low-income community in Nigeria, including interviews conducted with seventeen persons with dementia and other community members, and fieldnote entries. Three main themes emerged from a thematic analysis of the manually coded data, illustrating 1) the dis/advantages of communal infrastructures, 2) how communal care arrangements influence inclusion, and 3) the role of communal beliefs in the inclusion/exclusion of people with dementia. The results revealed ways in which the rural, compound-based, and collectivised nature of the community facilitates access to relationships, care, and other resources for community members with dementia. In contrast, the precarity of primarily filial-based non-structural care, the inaccessible nature of houses and roads in the community, and karmic beliefs around dementia and care pose exclusionary challenges to community members, especially those physically disabled or with no connections to their children. Consequently, the study recommends structural yet contextualised and inclusive dementia care frameworks in Nigeria.
