Barriers to older people's participation in local governance: The impact of diversity

Creating opportunities for inclusive participation by older people in local governance is made more complex by their diversity, which can shape who participates, in what ways, and how effectively. The existing research, however, largely focuses on the impact of socio-demographic characteristics or of individual barriers on participation, without considering how interactions between these may shape pathways to participation among older people. This quantitative study explored the relationships between participation by older people, barriers to participation, and socio-demographic characteristics. The results indicate that socio-demographic diversity impacts on the importance attributed to barriers as well as the strength and direction of their relationships with participation. The findings problematize the dominant approaches to understanding barriers to and patterns in participation. A more sophisticated understanding of inclusive governance in ageing communities needs to consider the iterative and interactional nature of pathways to participation in the context of the complexity of the older population.