Reflections on Co-Designing: Minoritised Older Adults, Community Sector and Cultural Sector Partners, 2023

This research project tackled the complex problem of how to increase participation in social and cultural life for all as we age which has been shown to make a vital contribution to raising quality of life. The project addressed the fundamental issue that arts and cultural participation drops dramatically in older populations and that disabled, Black, Asian and minority ethnic and older people living in poverty are even less likely to participate. It tackled inequalities related to accessibility and content of digital arts and cultural provision, enabled vital R&D and established new business models to encourage digital innovation in the arts and cultural sector to support healthy ageing.

The project included exploration of the everyday lives of minoritized older adults. Throughout the project methods of doing co-design with minoritized older adults were designed. The project worked alongside older adults, creative industry players and community sector and cultural sector organisations to co-design digital arts and cultural experiences that support social connections and contribute to improved quality of life for older adults.

It supported creative industries to build a better understanding of diverse older audiences and to robustly evaluate their offer; and provided new evidence based policy making that sought to tackle inequalities in arts and cultural provision for healthy ageing outcomes.

This data set includes Interviews held towards the end of the Connecting through Culture as we Age research project. The interviews were a point of reflection on the participation of older adult co-researchers and partners reflecting on co-design in Connecting through Culture as we Age. The project recruited 20 minoritised older adults who identified as disabled, socioeconomically and/or racially minoritised and worked with them through the 3 years of the project which involved creative, participatory design based methods. The project funded 6 prototype teams that emerged during the project and included older adult co-researchers. We worked closely with community and cultural sector organisations throughout the co-design process.<p>This research project tackles the complex problem of how to increase participation in social and cultural life for all as we
age which has been shown to make a vital contribution to raising quality of life. The project will address the fundamental
issue that arts and cultural participation drops dramatically in older populations and that disabled, Black, Asian and minority
ethnic and older people living in poverty are even less likely to participate. It will tackle inequalities related to accessibility
and content of digital arts and cultural provision, enable vital R&D and establish new business models to encourage digital
innovation in the arts and cultural sector to support healthy ageing. Arts and cultural organisations have been slow to adopt
digital innovation, but there is huge potential in using emerging technologies to enable diversification of content and build
new older audiences. The pandemic has increased the urgency to harness digital technologies to enhance the accessibility
and content of cultural participation so that those who are socially isolated may be able to benefit, increasing their quality of
life.
The impact of the project will be include: disabled, Black, Asian and minority ethnic and older audiences living in poverty
participating in digital arts and cultural experiences that will support their social connections and contribute to improved
quality of life; provision of vital R&D support for collaborations between cultural and technology sectors in designing digital
innovations, helping them prosper and thus contributing to regional and national sectoral growth; supporting creative
industries to build a better understanding of diverse older audiences and to robustly evaluate their offer; and new evidence
based policy making that tackles inequalities in arts and cultural provision for healthy ageing outcomes.
The project will involve an interdisciplinary team working alongside the cultural sector, creative technology partners and
communities of 'next generation' older people (i.e. aged 60-75 years) to understand older people's experiences of digital
exclusion, and what they value culturally and socially. This knowledge will then inform the co-design of digitally driven
cultural experiences that 'support social connections'. The research will involve designing a new tool to measure the impact
of digital cultural experiences on social connectivity for healthy ageing. The audience research will enable new
understandings of digitally experienced cultural value, that takes account of older age and inequalities. It will provide robust
evidence of how the cultural products we design can potentially contribute to next generation older people enjoying at least
five extra healthy, independent years of life.</p>

本研究项目旨在解决老龄化过程中如何提升全体人群社会文化生活参与度这一复杂问题——已有研究表明，该参与度对提高生活质量具有重要作用。项目聚焦两大核心问题：一是老年人群体的艺术与文化参与度显著下降；二是残障人士、黑人、亚裔及少数族裔老年人与贫困老年人群体的参与可能性更低。项目针对数字艺术与文化供给在可及性与内容层面的不平等问题展开研究，推动关键研发（R&D）工作，并构建新型商业模式，以鼓励艺术文化领域的数字创新，助力健康老龄化。

项目还探索了少数群体老年人的日常生活。在项目全程中，研究团队设计了与少数群体老年人开展协同设计（Co-design）的方法，并与老年人、创意产业从业者、社区及文化领域机构合作，协同设计支持社会连接的数字艺术与文化体验，以提升老年人的生活质量。

项目将助力创意产业深化对多元老年受众的理解、强化其服务评估能力，并推动循证政策制定，以解决艺术文化供给中的不平等问题，实现健康老龄化目标。

本研究项目旨在解决老龄化过程中如何提升全体人群社会文化生活参与度这一复杂问题——已有研究表明，该参与度对提高生活质量具有重要作用。项目将聚焦两大核心问题：一是老年人群体的艺术与文化参与度显著下降；二是残障人士、黑人、亚裔及少数族裔老年人与贫困老年人群体的参与可能性更低。项目将针对数字艺术与文化供给在可及性与内容层面的不平等问题展开研究，推动关键研发（R&D）工作，并构建新型商业模式，以鼓励艺术文化领域的数字创新，助力健康老龄化。艺术文化机构在数字创新采纳方面进展缓慢，但新兴技术在实现内容多元化与拓展老年受众群体方面具有巨大潜力。疫情加剧了利用数字技术提升文化参与可及性与内容质量的紧迫性，以便让社会孤立人群从中受益，提高其生活质量。

项目的预期影响包括：残障人士、黑人、亚裔及少数族裔老年人与贫困老年人群体将参与支持社会连接的数字艺术与文化体验，进而提升生活质量；为文化与技术领域的数字创新协作提供关键研发支持，助力其发展并推动区域及国家产业增长；助力创意产业深化对多元老年受众的理解、强化其服务评估能力；以及推动循证政策制定，解决艺术文化供给中的不平等问题，实现健康老龄化目标。

项目将组建跨学科团队，与文化领域、创意技术合作伙伴及“下一代”老年人社区（即60-75岁人群）协作，理解老年人的数字排斥体验及他们在文化与社会层面的价值诉求。这些知识将为“支持社会连接”的数字化文化体验协同设计（Co-design）提供依据。研究将开发新型工具，以衡量数字文化体验对健康老龄化社会连接性的影响。受众研究将深化对数字体验文化价值的理解——该理解将充分考虑老年群体特征与不平等问题，并为所设计的文化产品如何助力下一代老年人享受至少五年额外健康独立生活提供可靠证据。