Social inclusion from an intersectional perspective: Evidence from a municipality in Western Switzerland

Li, Yang and Spini, Dario (2022) Social inclusion from an intersectional perspective: Evidence from a municipality in Western Switzerland. Ageing in Europe: Towards more Inclusive Societies, Research and Policy, University of Vienna, Vienna, United Kingdom. 11 - 13 Jul 2022. 14 pp .

Abstract

In Switzerland, 38% of the adult population experience loneliness, which is more prevalentamong older adults and individuals with a migration background. While past interventionshave helped reduce loneliness by fostering social connections, these interventions were oftenbased on unidimensional and broad demographic categorizations (e.g. older adults orforeigners), neglecting the intersectional and multiplicative nature of social identities, therebylimiting the precision of interventions to enhance social inclusion. Using primary datacollected in 2019 from a longitudinal participatory action research project (n=1,360), wesought to understand the extent to which intersectional social identities combined to shaperisks of loneliness in a local municipality in western Switzerland. Employing innovative multilevel techniques from social epidemiology, we found that 56% of the variance between intersectional groups was explained by multiplicative identities (age x gender x nationality xeducation) – above and beyond the additive effects of social identities (age + gender +nationality + education). In addition, we identified that individuals who werenon-Swiss and aged 65+ and male and have primary educational attainment only were mostat risk of loneliness and would be logical intervention targets to reduce loneliness. Study findings suggest that future research and interventions on building more inclusive societiesmay benefit from understanding the population’s intersectional identities for more preciselytargeted outreach and tailored communications to enhance inclusion based on theintersectional identities of the most vulnerable populations.

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Contributors

Author: Yang Li

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