This qualitative study explores how functional vision intersects with social capital in care homes in Zagreb, focusing on how everyday rituals and informal support shape inclusion, autonomy, and wellbeing. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with residents (N=20), we analyse how social ties are formed and maintained through repetitive micro-practices such as shared meals, coffee routines, group exercises, walks, leisure activities, and informal “corridor” encounters. These rituals serve as low-threshold entry points to belonging but can also become sites of subtle exclusion when residents cannot easily participate. Informal support is described as both practical and symbolic: help is frequently offered, negotiated, accepted, or declined in ways that protect dignity and manage perceived dependency. Functional vision emerges as a relational condition that shapes access to interactional cues (recognising faces, reading situations), confidence in moving through shared spaces, and the ability to sustain spontaneous contact – thus influencing opportunities to build and mobilise social capital. Vision-related challenges are rarely described as isolated; they interact with broader functional constraints (mobility limitations, fear of falling) and with brokerage by family, peers, or staff, which can enable participation but also increase dependence. This study contributes to gerontological debates on social inclusion by showing how embodied functioning and institutional routines jointly produce unequal access to informal support and social capital, highlighting practical implications for designing everyday practices and environments that sustain connection without undermining autonomy.

Authors:
Dominik Sikirić, University of Zagreb Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, Croatia
Tina Runjić, University of Zagreb Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, Croatia
Vlatka Anić, University of Zagreb Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, Croatia

About the Presenter(s)
Dominik Sikirić, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, Univ. of Zagreb. Interests: psychosocial drivers of independent mobility in visual impairment. Project: qualitative study.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Saturday Schedule

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