This article reports on qualitative research among 48 social professionals, managers and policymakers and their perceptions of activating citizenship, social work roles and responsibilities, carried out in Utrecht and Tartu. Professionals from both countries agreed to the idea of activating citizenship but stressing the perspective of personalised or lived citizenship, each person to his own capacities and embedded in the personal context. Nearly all respondents were critical about the recognition of social workers as a full profession, about the new management way of steering social work and about cooperation between different groups of professionals and services. Although both countries have quite different historical and cultural backgrounds, the authors found many similarities among social workers regarding their ideas on support, participation and commitment to the people they work for and work with. International research projects contribute to a more strongly recognised social work theory and social work practice by getting a better understanding, in particular of the way social work adapts to different contexts but from a highly recognisable international discourse within social work.

Older men’s participation in learning initiatives is low in Estonia (SHARE, 2015). The national plans for active ageing (Welfare Development Plan 2016–2023, 2016) indicate that activities related to inclusion and development are vital to improving older individuals’ quality of life in the context of the ‘longevity revolution’. There is little discussion about the ways in which older people themselves affect the success of these plans, and about the potential roles and opportunities for all members of the community to foster the inclusion of older people. Two qualitative studies conducted in Estonia in 2012 and 2017 expand upon the involvement of older men in different contexts. A content and thematic analysis revealed latent factors that may hinder older men’s learning, such as loneliness, expectations about masculinity inherited from the cultural background, a restrictive domestic comfort zone, and a lack of demand for older men’s experience. The main finding from the analysis is that older rural men in Estonia do not feel responsible for their own social health. As older men’s personal initiative to create their own learning opportunities tends to be low, the community needs to provide more support for the reduction of men’s indirect barriers.

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Some ideas of the hospice conception (e.g. pain control and psychosocial support) are used in hospitals and general care centres in Estonia, but there is little respect towards dying people and their needs. The idea of interdisciplinary teamwork is not in use.

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