Sociological study of the elderly native perception of ability in rural community (case study: Larijan village, Mahallat city, Markazi province)

In order to achieve local development, the participation of all people in community should be considered. The elderly as a part of the society, are supposed to play an effective role in the community. It seems that identifying effective components in promoting the ability of this group and adopting appropriate strategies to enhance the elderly capacity for playing more effective role in the local development of a society are precondition for an effective role of the elderly to play in local development. Based on the main purpose of this paper, the promoting ability of the elderly is studied. Participants in this study have been elderly people of Larijan village of Mahallat city in Markazi province. In order to collect data, thematic analysis method in qualitative approach has been used. The data collection techniques are participant observation, semi-structured interview and ground-writing methods (note taking). For data analysis, coding and categorization have been used. To increase richness of the data 12 out of total 17 interviews with the highest quality have been selected and analyzed. According to the survey’s results, the most important promoting factors effective in the development of the elderly ability are informational capital, being healthy and able to work, having spouse, literacy and education, religious participation, child-based supporting network, relative and friend -based supporting network, intellectual and practical independence, the ability of bargaining and eloquence, being contented and fatalism, rural culture teachings and some other factors mentioned in the survey. Considering this survey’s results, the combination and continuity of agency and opportunity structure related to promotion or weakening of ability are inseparable. As a result, for any analysis or planning, this mutual relation should be considered.