Geographical Gerontology

Perspectives, Concepts, Approaches

Mark W. Skinner, Gavin J. Andrews, Malcolm P. Cutchin, Mark W. Skinner, Gavin J. Andrews, Malcolm P. Cutchin

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138241152
• eBook ISBN: 9781315281193
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Geography
• Index: Geography

Understanding where ageing occurs, how it is experienced by different people in different places, and in what ways it is transforming our communities, economies and societies at all levels has become crucial for the development of informed research, policy and programmes.

This book focuses on the interdisciplinary field of study – geographical gerontology – that addresses these issues. With contributions from more than 30 leading geographers and gerontologists, the book examines the scope and depth of geographical perspectives, concepts and approaches applied to the study of ageing, old age and older populations. The book features 25 chapters organized into five parts that cover the field's theoretical traditions and intellectual evolution; the contributions of key disciplinary perspectives from population geography, social and cultural geography, health geography, urban planning and environmental studies; the scales of inquiry within geographical gerontology from the global to the embodied; the thematic breadth of contemporary issues of interest that define the field (places, spaces and landscapes of ageing); and a discussion about challenges, opportunities and agendas for future developments in geography and gerontology.

This book provides the first comprehensive foundation of knowledge about the state of the art of geographical gerontology that will be of interest to scholars of ageing around the world.

Part I

Introduction

1 Introducing geographical gerontology

Mark W. Skinner, Gavin J. Andrews and Malcolm P. Cutchin

Introduction

Ageing is a key narrative of the twenty-first century. Around the world, individuals, households, communities, organizations, businesses, industries, governments and civil societies are facing the opportunities and challenges of unprecedented numbers of older people. Understanding where ageing occurs, how it is experienced by different people in different places, and in what ways it is transforming our societies, economies and environments at all levels – in other words, he geography of ageing – has become crucial for the development of informed research, policy and programmes. Whilst geographical questions are not new to gerontology, the implications of population ageing (for families, health care systems, public finance, etc.) in an era of global economic, environmental and technological change have made them more important than ever. The aim of this book is to bring greater attention to, and build a foundational understanding of, the field of study that addresses these problems.

Geographical gerontology is a burgeoning body of interdisciplinary scholarship encompassing the application of geographical perspectives, concepts and approaches to the study of ageing, old age and older populations. Notwithstanding the growing interest in geographical dimensions of ageing, not to mention the popularity of recent efforts to articulate this interest (see Andrews and Phillips, 2005b; Andrews et al., 2007, 2009; Skinner, Cloutier and Andrews, 2015), what has been missing is an authoritative volume that describes, explains and expands the depth of knowledge about geographical gerontology by elucidating the theoretical, analytical and thematic scope of the field. In taking up this challenge, this book is a distinctive addition to the geographical literature on ageing and the interdisciplinary gerontology literature in that it seeks to establish a comprehensive foundation for understanding geographical gerontology as a contemporary field of study. The emphasis on perspectives, concepts and approaches that are sensitive to the importance of place, space, scale, landscape and territory, among other geographical dimensions, as they relate to gerontological questions lays the groundwork for future developments in the field.

Geographical gerontology

Our starting point is the need to bring the perspectives, concepts and approaches that guide geographical gerontology into focus. The current field emerged at the confluence of a long-standing disciplinary tradition within ‘geographies of ageing’ (Rowles, 1978, 1986; Warnes, 1981, 1982, 1990; Golant, 1984; Harper and Laws, 1995; Hodge, 2008; Hopkins and Pain, 2007; Tarrant, 2010; Davies and James, 2011; Skinner et al., 2015) and a more recent ‘spatial turn’ within social gerontology (Andrews and Phillips, 2005b; Wiles, 2005; Andrews et al., 2007, 2009; Andrews, Evans and Wiles, 2013; Cutchin, 2009). The result is a growing body of interdisciplinary scholarship encompassing the application of geographical perspectives, concepts and approaches to the study of ageing, old age and older populations by geographers, gerontologists and allied scholars from across the health and social sciences. The contributions to the landmark volume Ageing and Place: Perspectives, Policy, Practice, edited by Andrews and Phillips (2005a), as well as to the special issues on ageing edited by Hardill (2009), Schwanen, Hardill and Lucas (2012) and Rosenberg (2015), exemplify this progression. Subsequent inquiries into the constitution of the field in the early 2000s led to the mapping of its historical, epistemological, thematic and professional terrain (Andrews et al., 2007, 2009). As observed in a recent plenary address by Cutchin (2014), however, whilst the foundations of the contemporary field of study have been established, the full depth and scope of geographical gerontology have yet to be examined.

What is missing from the literature on geographical gerontology, and what lies at the intellectual core of this book, is a comprehensive understanding of the perspectives, concepts and approaches that distinguish the field of study in its most recent era. That is, this book aims to set out an understanding of what is distinctly ‘geographical’ about geographical gerontology (in contrast, for instance, to what distinguishes environmental gerontology, cultural gerontology and so on). Underlying the evolution of the field, both within geography and gerontology, is a long-standing and increasingly nuanced appreciation for the reflexive, transactional and mutually constitutive relationships between older people and the spaces and places in which and through which age and ageing occur (Andrews et al., 2013). Indeed, the importance geographical constructs – place, space, scale, landscape, territory and so on – for gerontological thinking and research has been advocated for more than forty years by leading geographers such as Stephen Golant, Alun Joseph, Glenda Laws, Christine Milligan, David Phillips, Mark Rosenberg, Graham Rowles and Anthony Warnes as well as by leading gerontologists such as Sarah Harper, Sheila Peace and Judith Phillips, among others.

Notwithstanding the explicit reference to geographical aspects of older populations (e.g., locations, distributions, movements, etc.) within gerontology since its formalisation in the mid-twentieth century, the relationship between ageing and physical/social environments primarily has been the domain of environmental gerontology. The latter is a field informed for the most part by psychology (Scheidt and Schwartz, 2013; Wahl and Weisman, 2003), although the connection to place as an environmental theme is long-standing (Kendig, 2003), as is evident in recent authoritative volumes in environmental gerontology (see Rowles and Bernard, 2013; Peace, 2019). It is increasingly clear, however, that the breadth of geographical perspectives, concepts and approaches applicable to ageing research lie well beyond the prevailing psychosocial considerations of environmental gerontology (Cutchin, 2009, 2014). The recent emergence of geographical gerontology as a coherent domain of interest has broadened both the conceptual and empirical scope of gerontological research to include the wider array of geographical questions.

To elaborate, as first documented by Andrews et al. (2007, 2009) the foci of contemporary geographical gerontology range, in general terms, from the spatial patterns of demographic ageing, movement and migration of older populations, health care services and infrastructure, and living arrangements and environments of older people, to the place-embedded experiences of ageing, health, care and well-being, and, more recently, to the embodiment and representations of such experiences, each of which is actively underway in the field today (Skinner et al., 2015). As an illustration, Figure 1.1 encapsulates the thematic scope of geographical gerontology in reference to the most germane branches of geography and gerontology that have influenced the development of the field. Underlying this body of work, is an increasingly concerted effort to examine and explain how geographical approaches (both long-standing and emergent) relate to understanding gerontological issues such as the ways in which theoretical developments in health geography, social and cultural geography, and population geography have been applied to the study of older people (e.g., therapeutic landscapes, non-representational theory, post-colonial discourse) (Skinner et al., 2015). By elucidating the full breadth and scope of perspectives, concepts and approaches that underlie the field of study, this book seeks to make a distinct and timely contribution to the advancement of geographical gerontology and the broader field of gerontology more generally.

Figure 1.1 Scope of geographical gerontology

Source: adapted from Skinner et al. (2015: 778)

Geographical perspectives, concepts and approaches

The core argument of this book is that geographical perspectives, concepts and approaches provide constructive, distinct and essential contributions to the interdisciplinary study of ageing, old age and older populations, contributions that emphasize the importance of scale, place and space in building our understanding of the processes and outcomes, representations and experiences of ageing around the world. To advance our knowledge about geographical gerontology, the book draws together leading researchers in the field to build a conceptual, analytical and methodological foundation that is international in scope. Featuring contributions from more than 30 established and emerging experts at universities in Australia, Canada, England, Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland and the United States, the 24 chapters that comprise the remainder of this book are illuminating in their focus on the diversity of geographical questions that emerge within gerontology and, perhaps most important, in their collective emphasis on establishing the foundations for future empirical work in the field. The contributors are leading scholars who have been examining and advancing geographical gerontology for the past several decades including some of the most important leaders in the early development of the field.

To achieve the objectives of this book, the chapters are organized into five major parts emphasising theoretical foundations (Part I), key geographical perspectives (Part II), scales of inquiry (Part III), defining issues (Part IV) and critical reflections (Part V). The first part, including this introductory chapter, traces the theoretical traditions and intellectual developments involved in the constitution of the field, with a particular emphasis on elucidating the different and evolving understandings of place and space as they relate to gerontological research (Andrews et al., Chapter 2). The two opening chapters set the backdrop for the exploration of the various ways in which geography contributes to gerontological scholarship.

The second part familiarizes the reader with the distinct geographical perspectives on ageing that constitute what is ‘geographical’ about geographical gerontology. The explicit emphasis is on introducing, explaining and critiquing the contributions of the core sub-disciplines of geography that have informed the development of the field over time, beginning with health geography (Wiles, Chapter 3), social and cultural geography (Milligan and Tarrant, Chapter 4), population geography (Rosenberg and Wilson, Chapter 5), urban planning (Phillips, Chapter 6) and environmental perspectives (Diaz Moore, Chapter 7). Reflecting the evolution of the parent discipline, the first three chapters in Part II showcase geographical traditions and their increasingly critical perspectives, whilst the latter chapters emphasize the links to broader, geographically informed fields in planning and gerontology. Taken together, the five chapters in Part II set out the (inter)disciplinary foundation for understanding geographical concepts and approaches.

The third part explores the different scales at which inquiry within geographical gerontology occurs, from the macro to the micro and in between. Attention to scale is a uniquely geographical pursuit, and the emphasis here is on building an understanding of how geographical perspectives, concepts and approaches inform our understanding of ageing as a global phenomenon (Phillips and Feng, Chapter 8) and, internationally, as a particular challenge for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) of the global South (Rishworth and Elliott, Chapter 9). The focus then shifts to geographies of ageing in cities (Buffel and Phillipson, Chapter 10) and in rural regions (Skinner and Winterton, Chapter 11) as well as how ageing issues manifest in communities (Lovell, Chapter 12), households (Martin-Matthews and Cloutier, Chapter 13) and, at the most immediate scale, the body (Herron, Chapter 14). The seven chapters in Part III provide a comprehensive view across the geographical scales at which ageing occurs.

The fourth part examines the thematic breadth of geographical research on ageing. The emphasis is on key issues that best define the scope of interest within the field; organized around the core geographical concepts of place, space and landscape. The first four chapters explore the issues of ageing in place (Golant, Chapter 15), place attachment (Rowles, Chapter 16), people-place transactions (Cutchin, Chapter 17), and health care and place (Hanlon, Chapter 18). These are followed by three chapters that examine older people’s movement and mobilities (Gatrell, Chapter 19), domains of inclusion and exclusion that affect their lives (Walsh, Chapter 20), as well as spaces of resistance to the imperatives of ageing and care ( Joseph and Joseph, Chapter 21). Closing out Part IV are two chapters that explore landscapes as they are constructed and experienced in the everyday lives of older people (Kearns and Coleman, Chapter 22) and the particular therapeutic landscapes of ageing (Winterton, Chapter 23). The nine chapters in Part IV capture the most salient issues central to contemporary geographical gerontology.

The fifth (and final) part features a discussion about future research in geographical gerontology. The focus is on summarizing the overarching themes of this book and identifying opportunities to further expand the theoretical, analytical and empirical scope of geographically informed gerontological scholarship. The discussion begins with a view from outside of the field by a leading international geront...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• Contributors
• Preface
• Part I Introduction
• Part II Geographical perspectives on ageing
• Part III Geographical scales of inquiry
• Part IV Key issues in geographical gerontology
• Part V Discussion
• Index