Crafting Communities: Promoting inclusion, empowerment and learning between older women

Type of content
Journal Article
Publisher's DOI/URI
Thesis discipline
Degree name
Publisher
University of Canterbury. School of Language, Social and Political Sciences
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
Date
2011
Authors
Maidment, J.
Macfarlane, S.
Abstract

While social policy and planning documents are replete with ominous warnings about the cost of an ageing population, this article tells a different story about the productive and self sustaining networks that exist amongst older women in the community who do craftwork. From our research conducted in Victoria, Australia during 2007-2008 we discovered a resilient and committed group of older women quietly and steadily contributing to community fundraising, building social networks and providing learning opportunities to each other in diverse ways. Through our conversations with nine craftswomen we have been able to articulate clear links between the theory and models commonly espoused in the community development (CD) literature and the life enriching practices used in organising informal community craft group activities. From our interviews with the older women we provide evidence of sustained participation, the generation of social capital, and the fostering of life-long learning. While none of the women we spoke to were trained in CD and did not use language commonly associated with feminist ideology the relationship between the informal group work with principles of empowerment and self efficacy were unmistakeable. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our findings for critical social work practice.

Description
Citation
Maidment, J. and Macfarlane, S. (2011) Crafting Communities: Promoting inclusion, empowerment and learning between older women. Australian Social Work, 64(3), pp. 283-298.
Keywords
ageism, social capital, capacity building, craft, community development
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
Field of Research::16 - Studies in Human Society::1607 - Social Work::160702 - Counselling, Welfare and Community Services
Fields of Research::44 - Human society::4410 - Sociology::441016 - Urban sociology and community studies
Fields of Research::44 - Human society::4409 - Social work::440999 - Social work not elsewhere classified
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