Construction of Networking Game for Addressing Social Isolation in a Super-Aging Society - Innovative Management in Information and Production - page 341

Fig. 1 Education and vicious
cycle of social exclusion
(Source: United Nations
Development Programme in
Croatia (UNDP) (2006)
Poverty, Unemployment and
social Exclusion, p. 12)

Some NPOs offer community and NPO activities to elderly people, to coordinate
and translate into action their increasing wishes for social participation. However,
some elderly people find it difficult to adapt to the manner in which such com-
munities work, especially if they have long been accustomed to corporate society.
As a result, few can find their place in such communities. Thus, it will be crucial,
in promoting participation in community activities by elderly people, to develop
(a) facilities (“hardware”) as centers around which to build communities wherein a
variety of people including the elderly can get together, (b) programs (“software”)
to promote multigenerational exchanges at these facilities, and (c) communicational
ability (“human-ware”) on the part of the elderly to facilitate the building of bonds
with other people as well as with communities.

2.2 Major Causes of Social Isolation

What are the causes of “social isolation”? What are the major contributing factors?
Studying these causes and factors is indispensable for generating policies to deal
with isolation. In investigating these major factors, the social exclusion theory,
with its deep affinities to the concept of social isolation, offers an important
viewpoint. A United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report states that
social exclusion may be explained by a “vicious circle” involving three elements—
unemployment, poverty, and social isolation—which influence each other to create
a spiral of instability, as shown in Fig. 1 .
Such social exclusion results in multiple deprivations, which typically begin
with unemployment. Unemployment, in turn, naturally increases the risk of poverty.
Poverty makes it yet harder for people to find jobs, increasing the chances of long-
term unemployment (hence the straight line connecting them in the figure). People
suffering from unemployment and poverty typically have difficulty participating
in social activities because, for many, losing one's job is a social stigma that
impedes exchanges with other people. Moreover, the economic difficulties caused