Report of a project designed to develop understanding of what well-being means to older people, and of how it is produced. The well-being project was carried out between 2008 -11 in Brighton and Hove by a team involving university researchers, a voluntary sector manager and older co-researchers. Its aim was to develop participatory research with older people which would foreground lived experiences of ageing and co-produce knowledge about what well-being means.
An important aim of the project was to make a contribution to thinking about policy and practice and how this might enhance or detract from the way people experience well-being in old age. It aims to develop insight into how older people sought to maintain a sense of well being, often in circumstances where this was difficult; what helped them do this and what got in the way of ‘being well.’