JPI MYBL EWG Exclusion from civic engagement of a diverse older population: Features, experiences, and policy implications (CIVEX)

In Europe's ageing societies, being able to age healthily and actively is a major challenge not only for older people themselves but also for wider society. Moreover, older adults continue to be at risk of social exclusion in key life domains, including material and financial resources, social relations, access to services, community and neighbourhood integration, and civic and cultural participation. While social exclusion in later life represents a key topic for research and policy, significant gaps in knowledge and understanding persist. Such gaps reduce the potential for evidence-based policy and practice development. One major shortcoming in current research knowledge concerns the lack of conceptual development and empirical evidence on older adults' exclusion from multidimensional civic engagement. CIVEX aims to meet this gap. It will investigate features of exclusion from multidimensional civic engagement in later life, examine older adults' experiences of such exclusion, and identify evidence-based policy responses to address this form of exclusion. CIVEX will develop a comprehensive and interdisciplinary research project combining fundamental research and societal impact. The CIVEX consortium includes five European countries selected to represent contrasting welfare state regimes and cultural contexts: Anglo-Saxon (UK), Continental (Belgium), Nordic (Sweden and Finland) and Southern (Spain).

Taking a holistic perspective, the overarching aim of CIVEX is to examine exclusion from multidimensional forms of civic engagement in later life. CIVEX will address five objectives linked to multidimensional civic engagement of a diverse older population: 1) micro-level variables, with a focus on a diversity and intersectionality (gender, socio-economic and ethno-cultural backgrounds); 2) meso-level variables and 3) macro-level drivers of exclusion to understand how neighbourhoods and communities as well as welfare state regimes influence the multidimensional exclusion from civic engagement of a diverse older population; 4) lived experiences of inclusion and exclusion from civic engagement of potentially marginalised groups of older adults; and 5) life-course perspectives to assess how conditions earlier in life and at key stages of the adult life course affect individuals' opportunities to participate in multidimensional civic activities later in life. In meeting these scientific objectives, CIVEX seeks to produce a new, comprehensive theoretical model to conceptualise exclusion from multidimensional civic engagement in later life.

To achieve its objectives, CIVEX will use a mixed-methods design to compare, relate and complement both quantitative and qualitative perspectives. CIVEX also aims to optimise the balance between evidence-based and practice-based handling, ultimately coming to evidence-based practice. For that reason, CIVEX has been developed as a co-production project. Older adults and older people's organisations will play central role in CIVEX. Older adults will not only be research participants but also co-researchers, providing an essential "insider perspective" in collecting, analysing, presenting and disseminating the data and also when developing and disseminating evidence-based policy responses. The group of older adults within CIVEX will represent the current composition of European citizens and the five participating countries in CIVEX. Older people's organisations involved will, in turn, act as an advisory board and will work side by side with academic partners to ensure the societal relevance of the research, its translation into effective evidence-based policy recommendations, and its wide dissemination to relevant public audiences. As a result, CIVEX will seek to show how older adults' interests and concerns may be better represented in public decision making processes.