Daily mobility of elderly people

The essay brings forward the findings of a study on the daily territorial mobility of elderly people in Italy. It put forward a sociological approach to the issue, considering the mobility of elderly people as the subjective and objective inclination to be mobile via any method with the aim of reaching the places where social activities take place. Reference to the inclination is justified by the interest in seeing mobility as a property of subjects rather than a characteristic of places. The mobility of elderly people is analysed paying attention to the relationship between mobility, accessibility and risks of social exclusion. The argument is covered by a large number of authors that share the assumption that the relationship between mobility and accessibility is complex and not unidirectional and that, in a society constructed around the assumption of high mobility, the insufficient or inadequate mobility of weaker subjects may compromise access to goods, services and social networks, compromise participation and as a consequence, cause their social exclusion. Composed of four paragraphs - dynamic, composition, modal choice of daily mobility and social exclusion risks of elderly people - the study has been carried out on the data of the latest survey Istat on the use of time (2008-2009) and Isfort on the daily mobility demand in Italy.