GENPATH is an international European research project focussing on social exclusion in later life. Social exclusion is a multifaceted social problem with substantial disruptive consequences for individuals and society. One aspect of social exclusion is the exclusion from social relations, which is the key focus GENPATH. The high number of socially excluded older people and the consequences of old age social exclusion for older women and men´s health and well-being form the urgent rationale for the study. GENPATH will generate and disseminate the necessary knowledge for informed, evidence-based policy interventions, sensitive to gender, life course and welfare state contexts. The following countries participate in GENPATH: Austria, Czech Republic (coordinator), Germany, Israel, Ireland, Norway and Spain.
GENPATH will provide answers to the following general research questions:
1. What is the prevalence of exclusion from social relations and its risk factors in later life in Europe and how does this vary across societies as well as between older men and women?
2. What are outcomes of exclusions from social relations in later life in Europe and how do these vary across societies as well as between older men and women?
3. Do variations in micro-, meso-, and macro-level drivers for exclusion, including the gendered social norms, key life transitions and exclusionary processes, help to explain cross-national and gender differences in the prevalence of exclusion from social relations?
4. Do micro-, meso-, and macro-level factors, including the gendered social norms, key life transitions and exclusionary processes, have a moderating or mediating impact on outcomes of exclusion from social relations and do differences in the prevalence of these factors explain cross-national and gender differences in outcomes from exclusion from social relations?
5. How to design policies and interventions to address the sources and alleviate the negative outcomes of the exclusion from social relations in men and women during their life course? And how, if at all, should these policies and interventions be fitted to welfare regimes of various nation states?
The project is organized in four work packages (WP’s).
WP1: Gender and country differences in the construction of exclusion from social relations in later life, leaders: Marja Aartsen, Ariela Lowenstein;
WP2: Gender and country differences in outcomes of exclusion from social relations, leaders Andreas Motel-Klingebiel, Kieran Walsh;
WP3: he gendered nature of the lived experiences of exclusion from social relations, leaders: Anna Wanka, Feliciano Villar;
WP4: Integrative perspective on the gendered nature of exclusion from social relations and dissemination of the research findings, leaders: Lucie Vidovicova, Marcela Petrova Kafkova.
