Spaces of Resistance or Acquiescence? Learning from Media Discourses on the Role of Voluntarism in Ageing Communities

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4142181
AutoresMark W Skinner (0000-0001-7148-6827, Trent University, autor de correspondencia), Alun E Joseph (University of Guelph, autor de correspondencia), Rachel V Herron (0000-0003-4836-878X, Queen's University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2013
Volumen45
Número2
Páginas438-450
Fecha de publicación2013-02-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEnvironment and Planning A Economy and Space (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0308-518X • E-ISSN: 1472-3409
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1068/a45209
OpenAlexW2015692672
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas12
Referencias citadas46

This paper explores the extent to which a correspondence exists between academic theories and public perceptions concerning the role of volunteers and voluntary organizations in ageing communities. Drawing on local print media as a key source of information on public discourse, and with reference to an existing theorization of voluntarism, we analyze daily newspaper coverage of voluntary sector involvement in community care, long-term care, and health system restructuring in a mid-size Canadian city in the 2000s. The findings reveal how the link between voluntarism and ageing in place is portrayed in public discourse, how this portrayal fits with the prevailing academic conceptions of voluntarism as a 'space of resistance', and how the local print media helps shape discourse on voluntarism in ageing communities. The evident risk within the academic literature of overtheorizing voluntarism beyond its documented significance and the tendencies within public discourse to romanticize volunteers and voluntary organizations are problematized, and the implications for developing informed policy in ageing communities are discussed

Biology · Media studies · Newspaper · Political science · Public relations · Restructuring · Sociology · Geriatric Care and Nursing Homes · Health disparities and outcomes · Law · Migration, Aging, and Tourism Studies