Ageing and Social Well-Being (SoWell)
SoWell project studies older peoples’ own expectations, needs and activities regarding their well-being and a good life in old age. The project produces novel information by applying a participatory approach, creating new kind of cooperation with other projects, organizations, and authorities.
Already a fifth, and after a decade, almost a quarter of the Finnish population is over 65 years old. Yet there has been very little discussion about the well-being of older people. As the well-being of Finland increasingly consists of the well-being of older people, discussion about social well-being and the quality of life of older people is needed.
The aim of the project is, together with older people and their organizations, to create a more reliable and realistic picture of older people’s social well-being and the ways to improve it. Municipalities, organizations, and other communities can utilize this information in their activities. In addition, we want to bring about discussion about different meanings of social well-being and highlight the diversity of old age and the various life situations of older people.
Research data have been collected by group discussions, one-on-one interviews, and follow-up interviews with older individuals. The aim of these discussions and interviews were to find out the variety of perceptions the older people have about well-being. In addition, more generalizable information about different components of well-being, brought out in the discussions and interviews, were collected during winter 2020-2021 with large postal survey. Results are reported in scientific and popular publications in English and in Finnish.
This study is conducted at Tampere University, The Faculty of Social Sciences, the Gerontology Research Center (GEREC) and Centre of Excellence in Research on Ageing and Care (CoE AgeCare).
More information on the SoWell research project can be found on the project’s website
https://projects.tuni.fi/sowell/
Research funding
Päivikki and Sakari Sohlberg Foundation (2018-2023)
Research Group
Project leader, Professor Marja Jylhä, marja.jylha@tuni.fi
Project leader, Adjunct Professor Outi Jolanki, outi.jolanki@tuni.fi
Senior Research Fellow Kristina Tiainen, kristina.tiainen@tuni.fi
Doctoral Researcher Katariina Tuominen, katariina.tuominen@tuni.fi
Doctoral Researcher Outi Valkama, outi.valkama@tuni.fi
Researcher Jani Raitanen, jani.raitanen@tuni.fi
Senior Advisor Päivi Ahosola, paivi.ahosola@oikeus.fi,The office of the Ombudsman for older people, Helsinki