Model development for complementary assistance for older people in rural areas

Project management: Prof. Dr. habil. Monika Alisch, Prof. Dr. habil. Martina Ritter
in association with the HS Munich Faculty of Applied Social Sciences: Prof. Dr. Annegret Boos-Krüger, Prof. Dr. C. Schönberger
Funded by: BMBF, SILQUA-FH
Duration: 9/2014-8/2017

Project description:

Abstract
At the latest with the Seventh Report on the Elderly and the Second Engagement Report of the German Federal Government, civil society's co-responsibility for the care and provision of older people has moved into the focus of academic and, in particular, municipal policy debates. In self-organised structures, citizens' aid associations, especially in rural areas, take on voluntary and unsolicited tasks to maintain the community and quality of life in old age. The opportunities and limits of this commitment are the focus of the BUSLAR practical research project.

Rationale/Objectives
In the political discussion about provision in rural areas, voluntary engagement is often seen as a "lifeline" for gaps in public services. Older people in particular accept this call and organise themselves, for example, in citizens' aid associations. They try to set up solidarity-based forms of help and care with everyday services and opportunities to meet. In order to offer this help in a sustainable way, the needs of "needy" older people must be linked with their own wishes for activity and contact, and they must also network with other institutions in the region. Such citizens' help associations thus assume a share of responsibility for the preservation of rural communities. Before the willingness to perform and co-responsibility of such civil society initiatives can be demanded and planned, the possibilities for performance and the conditions of involvement must be looked at more closely. The BUSLAR practical research project has investigated the possibilities and limits of self-organised co-responsibility in different rural areas, researched the interests and needs of those providing and using help, and examined possibilities for the further development and stabilisation of involvement. The focus was on three target perspectives:

1. goals in a governance perspective

  • Analysing local and regional socio-spatial and political framework conditions;
  • Supporting the formation of networks between citizen support organisations and public services and care providers;

2. objectives in a needs perspective:

  • Identify interest orientations in the citizen support organisations;
  • Understanding the needs of older people in the region;

3. goals of organisational development:

  • Strengthening of citizens' aid organisations as local self-organised communities;
  • Stabilising commitment through sustainable organisational models;

Methods
Methodologically, the BUSLAR project follows an approach of transdisciplinary practice research: The research and development process is characterised by discourse between researchers and research participants about the respective results of the research steps. In addition to problem-centred interviews with volunteers from three citizens' aid associations in Eastern Hesse and Upper Bavaria, participation methods (especially future workshops, World Café and variants thereof) were used as data collection methods and evaluated according to qualitative social research standards. In the sense of change-oriented action research, a consultation process for organisational development was organised for the participating citizens' aid associations and accompanied by our research in order to analyse the critical incidents in this process and to use them for the modelling of development options for such citizens' aid associations.

Results
The findings of the BUSLAR project contribute to the discussion about the role of engagement in the welfare mix and show possibilities and limits of self-organised support arrangements as "caring communities": The commitment of rural citizens' support associations depends to a large extent on the interests and personal possibilities of the people involved. This makes it fragile and not easy to integrate into the planning logic of municipal development strategies to secure services of general interest. Moreover, this commitment can hardly be transferred to professionalised support systems or solidarity-based organisations such as cooperatives without endangering, instrumentalising or overburdening the commitment itself. However, such self-organised support structures make a considerable contribution to maintaining the community and the participation of older people in particular by creating places and opportunities for meeting, social contacts and participation in public life as well as providing individualised everyday support services in combination with social encounters.

Conclusions
A fundamental rethinking is required in (municipal) politics and administration in order to use the potentials of citizens' help associations for the sustainable development of rural places of living, also for older people: Not only must it be recognised that there is potential here to strengthen services of general interest in partnership, but it is also necessary to understand and accept where the possibilities and, above all, the limits of the respective commitment have been reached and where a resource is overburdened rather than meaningfully developed. Local politics and administration are called upon to take on a corresponding hinge function that relieves those involved of the tasks of networking and funding management and places the claim at the centre to maintain the fragile but socially significant commitment and to accept it in its obstinacy. This also means that the provision of funding programmes with corresponding funding criteria does not fundamentally strengthen such engagement if the support provided by local politics is underestimated. These findings are spatially transferable and are relatively independent of the political, economic or spatial framework conditions.

Publications

  • Alisch, Monika; Ritter, Martina; Rubin, Yvonne; Solf-Leipold, Barbara (2019): Democratic participation in everyday life: potentials and limits of self-organisation using the example of citizens' aid associations. In: Köttig, M./Röh, D. (eds.): Demokratie und Soziale Arbeit. Theories, Research and Practice in Social Work Vol. 17. Opladen, Berlin, Toronto: Barbara Budrich Publishers. S. 133-141.
  • Rubin, Yvonne/ Alisch, Monika/ Ritter, Martina (2019): "One must also be satisfied sometimes?!" The use of participatory research methods to reconstruct the needs of older people. In: Mayrhofer, Hemma/Wächter, Natalia/Pflegerl, Johannes (eds.): Partizipative Forschung in der Sozialen Arbeit zwischen Anspruch und Realität. ÖZS Special Issue. Issue December /2019
  • Alisch, Monika/ Boos-Krüger' Annegret/ Glaser' Roger/ Ritter' Martina/ Rubin' Yvonne/ Schönberger' Christine/ Solf-Leipold' Barbara (2018): "Someday I'll need help ...!" - Self-organisation, engagement and co-responsibility of older people in rural areas. Contributions to Social Space Research, Vol. 17. Opladen, Berlin, Toronto: Barbara Budrich Publishers.
  • Alisch, Monika/Ritter, Martina/Glaser, Roger/ Rubin, Yvonne (2018): Engagement in a citizens' aid association as a balancing act between meaningful leisure activities, social participation and self-professionalisation. In: Scherger, S./Vogel, C. (eds.): Arbeit im Alter. On the Importance of Paid and Unpaid Activities in the Retirement Phase of Life. Ageing and Society. Vol. 1. Wiesbaden: Springer VS (forthcoming).
  • Boos-Krüger, Annegret/ Solf-Leipold, Barbara/ Henger, Erika/ Schönberger, Christine (2018): Bürgerhilfevereine, Sozialgenossenschaften "und Co" in ländlichen Räumen als Partner der öffentlichen Daseinsvorsorge und Pflege: eine kritische Diskussion potenzieller Modelle. In: Zeitschrift für das gesamte Genossenschaftswesen (ZfgG), expected to appear at the end of September in ZfgG 2018, Jg. 63, Heft 3.
  • Glaser, Roger/ Rubin Yvonne (2018): Reaching disadvantaged older people: Discussion of approaches and methods. In: Alisch et al. (eds.): Social Innovations: Alter(n) in ländlichen Räumen. Perspectives on self-organisation, participation and care. Gesellschaft und Nachhaltigkeit, Vol. 6. Kassel: Kassel University Press (in prep.).
  • Ritter, Martina/ Alisch, Monika (2018): "It takes a whole village ..." Bürgerhilfevereine und Sozialgenossenschaften als Partner der Daseinsvorsorge. In: Alisch et al. (eds.): Soziale Innovationen: Alter(n) in ländlichen Räumen. Perspectives on self-organisation, participation and care. Society and Sustainability, Vol. 6. Kassel: Kassel University Press, p. .
  • Rubin, Yvonne (2018): Voluntary engagement in 'caring communities' - A gender-critical analysis. Contributions to Social Space Research, vol. 19. Opladen, Berlin, Toronto: Barbara Budrich Publishers.
  • Solf-Leipold, Barbara (2018): On the relationship between self-organisation and public services of general interest: partnership - coexistence - competition?! In: Alisch et al. (eds.): Social Innovations: Alter(n) in ländlichen Räumen. Perspectives on self-organisation, participation and care. Gesellschaft und Nachhaltigkeit, Vol. 6. Kassel: Kassel University Press (in prep.).
  • Alisch, Monika/ Ritter, Martina/ Rubin, Yvonne/ Glaser, Roger (2017): With each other, for each other, for others? Self-organised support for older people in rural areas. Alisch, Monika; Hagspihl, Stephanie/ Kreipl, Claudia/ Ritter, Martina (eds.) (2017): Alter(n) und Soziale Nachhaltigkeit. Interdisciplinary approaches to the challenges of ageing societies. Society and Sustainability, vol. 5. Kassel: Kassel University Press. S. 173-191.
  • Alisch, Monika/ Ritter, Martina/ Glaser, Roger/ Rubin, Yvonne (2017): Participatory social space research and the relationship between science and practice in research with volunteers. In: Alisch, M./May, M. (eds.): Methoden der Praxisforschung im Sozialraum. Contributions to Social Space Research, Vol. 15. Opladen, Berlin, Toronto. Barbara Budrich Publishers. S. 81-102.