Rural insights into the contested spaces of older voluntarism

Abstract

Research on older voluntarism reveals important insights into how rural communities are coping with the nuances of rural ageing. An emergent insight is how the interconnections between older rural volunteers and ageing rural places create spaces of conflict and contestation. To shed further light on how these ‘contested spaces of older voluntarism’ are constituted and what they mean for ageing in rural environments, a case study of volunteer-based programs in rural Ontario, Canada was conducted. Focus group discussions and interviews with more than 50 volunteers and program administrators elicit novel insights into how the perspectives, experiences and contributions of volunteers and administrators contribute to understanding dimensions of responsibility, ageing and the life course, territoriality, privilege and complexity. The findings also reveal how the tensions amongst volunteers, the programs they support and the communities in which the live influence the sustainability of rural older voluntarism and rural ageing at multiple levels.