Ageing on the move: conceptualising precarity among nomadic and Travelling-Performer communities

Purpose The paper aims to be of a conceptual nature, aims to establish a theoretical framework for understanding the care and support requirements of older adults who have spent their working lives in nomadic, circus and other travelling-performer communities, a group that is not covered by either mainstream ageing research or the existing frameworks designed to provide support for informal and precarious workers. Design/methodology/approach The study’s approach involves applying cumulative disadvantage theory, the anthropological idea of liminality, place-attachment theory and the Decent Work Agenda and also combining the existing literature concerning India’s Denotified and Nomadic Tribes (DNT/NT), the circus workforce in India and comparative research on Gypsy, Roma, Traveller and Showpeople (GRTS) from the United Kingdom and Europe to create an integrative conceptual model along with testable propositions. Findings The findings indicate that ageing within nomadic, circus and travelling-performer groups can be understood as a result of gradual and cumulative structural invisibility; because these groups have no fixed address, depend on their bodies as their main economic resource and lack institutional employment, they are repeatedly denied access to documentation, healthcare and welfare at all stages of life, which means that their needs for support become most pressing in old age exactly when recognition is most scarce. The model specifies the antecedents, the mediating process, the moderating conditions (these being mobility and organisational form, gender, legal recognition and intergenerational continuity) and the outcomes covering housing, health, financial security, dignity and cultural continuity. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is among the first attempts to apply theories of cumulative disadvantage and liminality to the experience of old age among nomadic and travelling-performer communities and it provides empirical researchers as well as practitioners, welfare boards and policymakers who work with older people without a fixed address with testable hypotheses and practical implications.