The evolution of RADAR

PowerPoint slides from a presentation by Steve Burholt and Rowena Rouse at the Equella Customer Advisory Board in March 2013 in London. The slides show how the RADAR repository at Oxford Brookes University has evolved to include an eclectic mix of resources

How to add a RADAR resource to Moodle using the PLATO plagiarism tutorial as an example.

A 2-page guide that explains how to add a link to the PLATO plagiarism tutorial in a Brookes Virtual course. This document is intended for COURSE DESIGNERS ONLY

The impact of residential immobility and population turnover on the support networks of older people living in rural areas: Evidence from CFAS Wales

This article addresses two questions: Are ‘stayers’ - defined as older people who were born in an area and lived there for 25 years or more prior to interview – more likely to have locally integrated or family dependent networks than other types of networks in the 21st Century? Does population turnover influence the support networks of older people more strongly than being a ‘stayer’? A sample of 1,870 participants living in rural areas is drawn from cross-sectional (Wave 1) data (version 2) from The Cognitive Function and Ageing Study (CFAS Wales). Five multinomial logistic regression models are used to establish how demographic covariates, cumulative population turnover, inflow, outflow and ‘stayer’ influence membership of Family Dependent (FD), Locally Integrated (LI), Local-Self Contained (LSC), Wider Community Focused (WCF) and Private Restricted (PR) support networks. The results reveal significant differences in the distribution of network types between stayers and non-stayers. Stayers were more likely to have LI or FD networks and were less likely to have WCF or PR networks than non-stayers. Gender, marital status, education, disability, childlessness, area deprivation, and cumulative population turnover, inflow and outflow (by age group) also influence membership of different networks. The research has implications for planning of formal services in rural places characterised by ‘ageing in place’ or as ‘ageing places’ and comprising socially engaged and socially marginalized networks. In particular, providers of social care should take into account the different types of support that may be required to bolster socially marginalized support networks

RADAR for e-Pioneers

Slides from an introductory workshop for e-Pioneers at Oxford Brookes University in November 2012. Steve Burholt discusses how RADAR can help manage and share online teaching resources, and the challenges that exist

Quick start guide to OER

A brief introduction to Open Educational Recources (OER), in the context of Oxford Brookes University. Included is a summary of the pros and cons of using OER as well as useful sources of OER

Exploring intergenerational, intra-generational and transnational patterns of family caring in minority ethnic communities: the example of England and Wales

We investigated family caring using established questions from national surveys of 1,206 adults aged 40+ from six minority ethnic communities in England and Wales. We included in our analysis factors that predisposed caring (age, sex, marital status and household composition) and enabled caring (health, material resources, education, employment and cultural values). In the general population, 15% of adults are family carers. Three groups reported lower levels of caring (Black African [12%], Chinese [11%] and Black Caribbean [9%]) and three reported higher levels of caring (Indian [23%], Pakistani [17%] and Bangladeshi [18%]). However, ethnicity predicted caring independent of other factors only for the Indian group

Research on rural ageing: Where have we got to and where are we going in Europe?

This paper examines the extent to which rural studies conducted in the countries of the Global North have addressed the phenomenon of rural ageing. Through a review of the literature published on rural ageing research in the last decade, it compares the research goals identified by the International Rural Ageing Project (IRAP) in 1998 with progress in this area. In addition to the key themes for rural ageing research identified by IRAP, the authors believe that there are others topics that will emerge and impact on rural ageing in the coming decade. These have been highlighted consistently in futures studies  as ‘global challenges’ and can be grouped as social, economic and political, technological, relating to climate change, or related to agriculture and food security. In addition to the literature review, the authors undertook a consultation exercise with more than 50 eminent academics and directors of key organisations who were interested in rural issues, ‘global challenges’ or rural ageing. Their feedback is included within a framework for future rural research. The article concludes with a discussion of emerging areas for rural ageing in the European context and the challenges that the EU may potentially face over the coming decades.</p

A Cultural Framework of Care and Social Protection for Older People in India

This article applies a cultural political economy lens within a sustainable livelihood framework and examines how cultural norms and values as well as social protection amplify or attenuate livelihood shocks leading to care-home entry. We used framework analysis and higher-level interpretive analysis of data from interviews with 30 older care-home residents from three districts in Tamil Nadu, India, to understand the practices that allow the social welfare system to function alongside the beliefs and values legitimizing these practices. Results reveal a divergence between the value orientation of social-protection policy and cultural practices which constrains the choices available for care in later life and reinforces culturally constructed inequalities rather than protecting or remediating livelihood shocks and loss of assets

A support network typology for application in older populations with a preponderance of multigenerational households

This paper considers the support networks of older people in populations with a preponderance of multigenerational households and examines the most vulnerable network types in terms of loneliness and isolation. Current common typologies of support networks may not be sensitive to differences within and between different cultures. This paper uses cross-sectional data drawn from 590 elders (Gujaratis, Punjabis and Sylhetis) living in the United Kingdom and South Asia. Six variables were used in K-means cluster analysis to establish a new network typology. Two logistic regression models using loneliness and isolation as dependent variables assessed the contribution of the new network type to well-being. Four support networks were identified: ‘Multigenerational Households: Older Integrated Networks’, ‘Multigenerational Households: Younger Family Networks’, ‘Family And Friends Integrated Networks’, and ‘Non-Kin Restricted Networks’. Older South Asians with ‘Non-Kin Restricted Networks’ were more likely to be lonely and isolated compared to others. Using network typologies developed with individualistically-oriented cultures distributions are skewed towards more robust network types and could underestimate the support needs of older people from familistic cultures, who may be isolated and lonely and with limited informal sources of help. The new typology identifies different network types within multigenerational households, identifies a greater proportion of older people with vulnerable networks and could positively contribute to service planning