Exploring intergenerationality and ageing in rural Kibaha, Tanzania: methodological innovation through co-investigation with older people

Abstract

This chapter explores the value of using a co-investigation approach to researching ageing and intergenerationality. In a study focused on mobility and service access among older people in Kibaha district, Tanzania, 12 people aged between 60 and 70 years from one community were recruited and given training in qualitative research. They subsequently conducted interviews and group discussions with their peers in their own community and 9 other local villages. In both the training sessions and subsequent research studies led by older people the vital importance of intergenerational support for older people's access to services - and the difficulties experienced by older people without such support - was a recurrent theme. The study builds on a small but expanding literature on the methodologies of co-investigation (mostly based on research conducted with children and young people), including positive personal experiences of two of the authors in developing research in this manner. It also builds on concepts and issues arising from the literature on older people and inter-generational relations in Africa, and on HelpAge’s substantial practice and policy experience in Tanzania and elsewhere. Our findings from this study enable us to show how co-investigation can illuminate understanding of older people’s lives and the role that intergenerational relations play within them. It focuses principally on the processes of developing a co-investigation approach with older people, including careful selection, age appropriate training and subsequent field support, but also considers inter-generational relations within the research team.