Ageing (well) in rural Sweden - possibilities and challenges for impoverished older women

In Sweden the numbers of poor older women have recently increased, and the rates of poverty among people over the age of 65 are highest in rural areas.

Apart from an increasing proportion of impoverished older persons, many of Sweden’s rural municipalities are characterised by rural depopulation, dismantling of local services and weak infrastructure.

In light of this, the project aims to provide an in-depth ethnographic analysis of the possibilities and challenges of ageing well as a woman in rural Sweden.By placing the lived everyday realities of impoverished older women at centre stage, the project brings together the concepts of ‘successful ageing’ and ‘social sustainability’.

Moving away from the individual-centered perspective of how to age well -which so far has dominated research and policy-oriented discussions- it (1) develops critical understandings of the micro- and macro-factors that influence women’s ageing process and later life, and (2) inquire into how such perspective can enrich future discussions of ageing and how to organise socially sustainable, egalitarian and age-friendly rural communities.

The project relies on ethnographic fieldwork in rural Värmland and Västerbotten, and it involves close collaborative with impoverished older women, local stakeholders and pensioner’s organisations.