Introduction

When asked if they might move after retiring from paid employment, and whether this might be to special housing geared towards older people, many research respondents will say they haven't really thought about it and wish to stay in their own home for ‘as long as possible’. This is despite the fact that their stories show they have thought about it even if it has not been widely discussed, and some have been used to moving throughout their lives (Holland, 2001; Wiles, 2005b; Peace et al, 2006). Attachment to place involves the coming together of levels of environmental understanding, and it has been noted ‘that individual experience of place is layered and that knowledge of personal biography and experience in time and space leads to greater clarification of the complexity of person– environment interaction’ (Peace et al, 2011, p 754).

Here, vignettes from anonymised and real name participants who wished to be named in research are introduced and they have all given consent for their stories to be told. They have been drawn from three British research studies that consider the detail of environment and ageing. The concept of ‘option recognition’, which captures the extent of environmental impact on decision making in later life, is then introduced. Consideration is given to how this theoretical development relates to research within other developed countries, especially the ENABLE-AGE researchers who similarly take into account the normality of environmental continuity and change in very old age. To conclude, the lens of general housing is used to reflect on the meaning of home.

Staying put?

The first vignette for Teresa and Sidney comes from the Transitions in Kitchen Living study (2009– 11) (Peace et al, 2018), discussed in Research summary 9.1 as an example of interdisciplinary research methodology. Quotes from the original interview scripts have been anonymised. Focusing on the domestic kitchen in later life, housing histories were carried out with research respondents in order to understand individual experiences of micro-environments across the life course.

Introduction

This chapter returns to considering the ways in which environmental gerontologists address key issues. Although the earlier discussion of theoretical development in Chapter 2 did not detail a methodological approach, we are drawn here to the qualitative work of Gubrium, Rowles, Rubinstein and de Mederios, for example, who have developed ethnographic methods and phenomenological approaches that help us to understand the minute detail of everyday living in later life. Like other gerontologists in this field such as Oswald, Wahl, Chaudhury, Golant, Bernard and Burholt, the current author has experience of mixed methods research, in which indepth perspectives can be viewed within a bigger picture. This may include innovative measurement and the triangulation of data in analysis (see Kellaher et al, 1990; Mertens and Hess-Biber, 2012).

In addition, the approach to research here has been influenced by the author's colleagues at The Open University (OU) who have expertise in biographical studies, oral history and autobiographical writing (Johnson, 1978; Atkinson and Williams, 1990; Bornat, 1994, 2001; Holland, 2001; Bytheway, 2009, 2011). While these methods emerged through social history and sociology (Chamberlayne et al, 2000; Thompson, 2000), they underpinned the need for in-depth knowledge of personal narrative, leading in 1995 to the launch of the Centre for Ageing and Biographical Studies at the OU's then School of Health and Social Welfare. Through bringing these traditions together, this author has continued her interest in how environmental experience, both individual and group, can be understood through environmental biography and participatory research that is grounded in place. Consequently, the interaction between people and their environment requires continued consideration of context, three areas are studied: participatory methods involving older people within the research process; the effects on research practice of interdisciplinary and interprofessional study; and issues of measurement, through subjective, objective, conceptual and applied research, with potential for further translation. Figures are drawn from research fieldwork.

Participatory research: involving older people

In Chapter 2, the discussion of photo-walks, a joint approach between the older person and the researcher that facilitated non-representational theory (Barron, 2019) reminded this author of an earlier experience. During graduate studies in the mid-1970s, cognitive mapping of place was developed with older people in Swansea (Peace, 1977), influenced by Lynch (1960), Regnier (1974) and others.

Introduction

When considering the journey made across different environments of ageing, and the wealth of literature covered, there are many paths and views that could have been taken. The aim of this chapter is to foreground contextual issues central to environmental gerontology. The spatiality of ageing started with a global perspective even if knowledge of person– environment (P–E) interaction is commonly local and national. Here a relational approach is taken to these spatial levels, looking at flows captured at different times through people and place. It returns to global concerns to reassess local and national impact that affects social exclusion and inclusion in later life, a part of the iterative theme of environmental living and the concept of home. In seeking a circularity of ideas with global to local, local to global influence relationality is used as a way to understand environments of ageing.

In Chapter 3, a discussion of global concerns focused on the big issues that are part of this challenging time. Thinking relating to global health focuses not only on definitions of active ageing and the ability of individuals to take personal responsibility for diet, exercise, activity and participation, but also the parallel incidence of long-term chronic ill health and end of life. Such experience varies within and between developed and developing countries where inequalities of personal and social health are related. When writing in October 2021, health for all ages is a chief concern as the COVID-19 pandemic has taken hold globally. By the summer of 2021, the third English national lockdown was coming to an end, with more than two-thirds of the adult population having had two COVID-19 vaccinations and later leading to booster vaccinations. What does this mean for the ways in which we will live in the future? Now, with several vaccines being rolled out at different speeds across the world, will things go back to how they were or will they change for ever – and could they change for the better?

This collective global experience has certainly moved centre stage, while other issues have moved to the wings. However, we are still living in an increasingly unequal world, where climate change continues unabated; there is growing intolerance of refugees and migrants; in the UK, EU withdrawal challenges identities as citizens of supranational collaborations; and technological change continues with benefits for some more than others.

The 21st century has seen environmental gerontology recognised as a valued field within the multi-and interdisciplinary study of social gerontology. This domain evolved through the last century as researchers recognised the importance of person–environment interaction to understanding ageing and later life. Now it takes into account the complexity of human lives and the environments of the everyday, not only in the immediate and local but also within national and global contexts. Here, context includes the social, political, material, physical, psychological, economic and cultural elements of the society in which discussion is based. The motivation for this book comes from my desire as a white British woman in her late 60s to make a lasting contribution to this field, drawing on more than 40 years of research experience that embraces international scholarship. The aim is to discuss the environments of ageing through the relationships between milieu, behaviour and well-being, and while I focus on the second half of life, the value of life course experience and historical perspectives is recognised as fundamental.

Although I am a human/social geographer by first discipline, my academic work in gerontology commenced before the emergence of geographical gerontology (see Peace, 1977, 2018; Warnes, 1981; Harper and Laws, 1995; Andrews et al, 2007, 2009; Skinner et al, 2018), and I value the intellectual challenge of working with colleagues across the social, human and design/engineering sciences (Peace, 2018). Even so, unsurprisingly when considering environment and ageing, I embed the ‘spatial turn’ in this text by referring to three levels of spatial scale – pictured in Figure 0.1 – macro- (global), meso- (national) and micro- (local), which I see as essential to discussion within environmental gerontology. This is a project that began some years ago, and during that time I have realised that while my own research addresses important issues at micro-and meso-levels, the fundamental importance of macro-concerns are central. These diverse spatial environments enable attention to be drawn to issues that span the global to local and local to global context.

Across this text, I draw upon a diverse literature based primarily in England and the UK, with international comparison given where appropriate. Across the ten interconnected chapters, I aim to assimilate knowledge, theory and method. The first three chapters provide the necessary foundation through which to consider different perspectives regarding the person–environment relationship in later life.

Introduction

In the preface to this book, it was noted that a key objective was to address environments of ageing at different levels of spatial scale (Figure 0.1). This chapter focuses on the global context. As this quote from the United Nations (UN) shows, population ageing continues to advance, occurring during a period of dynamic change when globalisation is producing time–space compression through technological development, and when global capitalism is resulting in consumerism becoming more universal (Sassen, 2004; Jones et al, 2008). The interface between major transformations in global health, demography and household composition is changing during a time of parallel challenges regarding urbanisation, migration, climate change, the built environment and technological development. Neo-liberalism has become the dominant political force, leading environments to become more or less inclusive for different cohorts, generations and groups (Walker, 2005; Phillips and Feng, 2018; IMF, 2020a, 2020b). The issues addressed here are historic and ongoing, with authors such as Phillipson (2003, 2007a, 2007b) alerting us to their breadth, diversity and impact on the ageing individual (see Figure 3.1). Recognition of such changes is discussed internationally and made local through social media (Hyde and Higgs, 2016; Ortega, 2018).

These are factors at macro-level that provide the global context for population ageing; where strategic interactions supported through supranational institutions – the European Union (EU), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the UN, especially the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) – influence policy development at all levels, including the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals (see the Glossary). Throughout this text, global population ageing using WHO and UN data is defined as including people both 60 or older and 65 and over. Where discussion focuses on the UK, 65 or older is commonly used.

Introduction

More than 90 per cent of older people in the UK live in general needs housing, forming the major component when discussing environments of ageing. Table 5.1 outlines the range of housing forms in later life. Approximately 5–6 per cent of the older population live in age-related communal housing, discussed in Chapter 7 along with co-housing, intentional housing that can be intergenerational or age-related. Additionally, 4–5 per cent live in care homes (residential and nursing care), which includes 15 per cent of the population aged 85 and over (Laing, 2018) and forms the focus of Chapter 8 (comparable typologies are seen in the Housing our Ageing Population: Panel for Innovation (HAPPI) report, written by Barac and Park, 2009, p 2 (see Glossary) and Park and Porteus, 2018, p 131).

This chapter focuses on mainstream housing, where housing type, tenure, standards and markets embed individual housing histories. It begins with a reflection on housing development during the 20th century to contextualise environments of ageing identified through the English Housing Survey. Then it moves to the built environment and housing policy, reflecting on how building regulations affect housing design. Issues regarding inclusive design and how dwellings seen as non-ableing could be retrofitted or adapted are discussed alongside the growing development of assistive technology. The chapter ends with further reflections on housing as home, the impact of receiving care in current housing and how older people are becoming involved in co-designing future housing. This sets the scene for the empirical research that is featured in Chapter 6, where general housing is considered with regard to the meaning of home.

Housing development in the UK: 20th century onwards

At the turn of the 20th century, the UK (as home to the industrial revolution) faced a need for housing reform, particularly ‘slum clearance’ for the working poor who were living in the worst conditions. In this brief history, we focus primarily on developments in England. In the late 19th century, housing reform was an endeavour noted in the efforts of bodies such as the Peabody Trust in London, industrial proprietors such as George Cadbury and William Hesketh Lever working to house their employees in Bournville and Port Sunlight in the Midlands and North-West England respectively.

Introduction

While different dimensions of environment – physical, social, cultural, political – can be considered separately, together they form the environmental context of place that is central to an ecological perspective. Throughout their lives, people live in dynamic interaction with this context, developing psychological understanding of it (Wahl and Lang, 2004; Keating et al, 2013), a view referred to here as ‘environmental living’. Environmental living in later life is the focus of the following five chapters. We move to national (meso-) and local (micro-) scales of reference, using the UK and England as an example, in which locations, settings and situations can be examined. As these scenarios are central to research undertaken by the author and colleagues over the past decades, Chapter 6 forms a bridge to empirical research connecting issues relating to intergenerational and age-related environments. The concept of ‘home’ alongside associated issues of ‘homeland’ is pivotal in this discussion; it is introduced here and is a running theme throughout.

Home and homeland

The word ‘home’ has diverse cultural definitions and is at the heart of a breadth of literature. For many it is a locational term, which is focused on specific housing yet often has a broader base regarding neighbourhood, community, city and nation – connecting with the concept of homeland. This extended definition includes layers of attachment that help to define a person's identity within a particular place. Space and place merge in a meaning of home that is associated with the personal through positive concepts of belonging, security, familiarity and privacy, while sometimes guarding negative concerns regarding gendered domestic activity, non-decent housing, isolation, loneliness and a life of fear or abuse (Peace, 2015).

Consideration of the meaning of home is essential to discussion of the environments of ageing as part of the person– environment (P–E) dynamic, place attachment and the understanding of ageing in place. Chapters 4, 6, 7, 8 reflect on its meaning through physical/built, social, locational and personal aspects to understand how a sense of home embodies the older person through times of continuity, relocation and change. A question raised by the author elsewhere will continue to be considered: ‘Can the ideology of home be re-created throughout later life in any place including non-domestic and age-segregated communal settings?’ (Peace, 2015, p 450).

Introduction

Chapter 8 begins by returning to the case study of Jo. You may be wondering what happened next. Eventually, Jo became a little more vulnerable, developed a form of pneumonia and had to be admitted to an acute hospital for a week, followed by three weeks within a community rehabilitation hospital. Members of her family visited almost every day, and in rehab she regained her mobility through daily exercises with a physiotherapist. Eventually, through her insistence, she returned to her home in retirement housing; to the flat she knew well, and with 24-hour care, provided through a combination of daily home carers and her daughters who covered the nights, she lived out the last six weeks of her life before dying in her own home. Her daughters and formal carers felt this was the ‘peaceful death’ that in many ways she had been determined to achieve. She did not have to move to a care home.

The need for long-term care

Jo's experience can be seen as a period of long-term care (LTC). This phrase relates to forms of health and social care, formal and informal, for people in need of medical support and personal care such as washing, dressing, meals, assistance with toileting and medication, across a range of contexts. It is defined in this way by the National Institute of Aging in the USA:

The future development of LTC is key to global health and ageing, and the World Health Organization (WHO, 2015a) also draws attention to the role of family caregivers alongside formal carers, predominantly womenor spouses. They note how in low-and middle-income countries LTC services may be limited or non-existent, and while there are positive examples from high income countries, all need to rethink issues of quality of care.