Capabilities for mobility among urban older women: barriers, strategies and options

To gain a deeper understanding of the opportunities for mobility in old age, this study examines the everyday travel needs, travel practices and activity participation of older women in an urban setting and it explores the complex links between barriers, strategies and options for mobility in old age. The analysis is based on results from four focus groups of women aged 67–89 living in Oslo, Norway’s capital. Mobility is defined here as the ability to choose where and when to travel and which activities to participate in outside the home in everyday life. To understand the potential opportunities for mobility of older women in urban areas, we proposed a conceptual framework in which opportunities for mobility in old age can be analyzed consistently with the capability approach to wellbeing that was developed by Amartya Sen. With its focus on the importance of choice and individual action, the capability approach is especially relevant for making explicit how “opportunities for mobility” is not a fixed structure but is something that is managed, shaped and directed by the individual—in this context, older women. The study enabled the identification of individual and contextual factors that influence the opportunities for mobility as well as strategies developed for overcoming barriers to mobility in old age. The study shows how individual resources, contextual conditions and strategies are interlinked and how they form a “pool of capabilities for mobility”, that is, opportunities for mobility that older women can draw onto mediate and shape their mobility.

► A qualitative study among older women in an urban area in Norway. ► Sen’s capability approach is applied to understand opportunities for mobility in old age. ► Older women can mediate and shape their opportunities for mobility. ► The study gives a nuanced picture of the role of the car in old age. ► Strategies for mobility is based on knowledge on/ experience with the transport system.