Ageing in Urban Neighbourhoods: Place attachment and social exclusion

249 Pages·2009·10.379 MB·English

by  Allison E. Smith

ALLISON E. SMITH
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Ageing in Urban
Neighbourhoods

Place attachment and
social exclusion
Ageing in urbAn
neighbourhoods
Place attachment and social exclusion
Allison E. Smith
This edition published in Great Britain in 2009 by
The Policy Press
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ISBN 978 1 84742 270 5 paperback
ISBN 978 1 84742 271 2 hardcover
The right of Allison E. Smith to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by
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Front cover: image kindly supplied by www.sxc.hu/photo/993619
Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International, Padstow
Contents
List of boxes, tables and figures iv
Acknowledgements v
Foreword by Judith Phillips vi
one Introduction 1
Part one: revisiting the person–environment fit
two Environmental gerontology 9
three Urban ageing 37
Part Two: rethinking the person–environment fit
four Skid row? Area profiles 51
five Ageing in deprived neighbourhoods 85
six Reconceptualising the person–environment relationship 135
Part Three: refocusing the person–environment fit
seven The way forward – building sustainability 157
eight Influences, opportunities and challenges 173
nine Conclusion 183
Appendix A: Summary of participant characteristics 191
Appendix B: Short biographies of participants in Manchester and Vancouver 195
Appendix C: Mrs MacDougall’s short story 215
References 217
Index 237

iii
Ageing in urban neighbourhoods
List of boxes, tables and figures
box
5.1 Summary of characteristics of environmental categories 89
Tables
5.1 Summary of case studies 91
A1 Summary of participant characteristics 191
Figures
2.1 Competence-press model 12
3.1 World population, total, urban and rural, 1950–2030 38
3.2 Population aged 60 and over living in urban areas: world and 39
developing regions, 1950–2050
6.1 Person–environment relationships 139

iv
Acknowledgements
There are a number of people whom I wish to thank. First and foremost are the
older people who graciously gave up their time to talk with me and share some
of their life stories. It was a privilege to have this opportunity. There are also a
number of people, particularly in Vancouver, to whom I am greatly indebted for
their support of the research – with special mention to Carolyn Innes and Dr
Marlene Wickman.
I would like to thank Professor Judith Phillips at Swansea University, Luke
O’Shea, formerly of the Department of Communities and Local Government,
Professor Sheila Peace at The Open University and Professor Chris Phillipson at
Keele University for their contributions to the book. In addition, I would like to
thank Professor Anne Martin-Matthews at the University of British Columbia for
support prior to and during my fieldwork in Vancouver, and my PhD supervisor
Professor Thomas Scharf.
I would also like to thank my parents – Marius and Shirley Smith – for their
unfailing support and encouragement.

v
Ageing in urban neighbourhoods
Foreword
Judith Phillips
The study of ageing is continuing to increase rapidly across multiple disciplines.
Consequently students, academics, professionals and policy makers need texts on
the latest research, theory, policy and practice developments in the field. With
new areas of interest in mid- and later life opening up, the series bridges the gaps
in the literature as well as providing cutting-edge debate on new and traditional
areas of ageing within a lifecourse perspective. Taking this approach, the series
addresses ‘ageing’ (rather than gerontology or ‘old age’) providing coverage of
mid- as well as later life; it promotes a critical perspective and focuses on the
social rather than the medical aspects of ageing.
In this book Allison Smith provides new ways of understanding the relationship
between older people and their environments, looking beyond the person–
environment fit that has traditionally dominated the environment and ageing
literature. By focusing on the experience of older people in deprived inner-
city communities in Canada and the UK she takes an unexplored approach
concentrating on the wider social environment. The book is informed through a
rich tapestry of older people’s biographies, case studies and illustrations, highlighting
the importance of both lifecourse and ‘place’ in our analysis of ageing.
The book will appeal to academics interested in environmental gerontology,
urban studies, town planning, housing and community development. It has
considerable relevance to policy makers in the field of ageing, particularly those
engaged in environmental and housing issues on both sides of the Atlantic.

vi
ONE
introduction
Environment can have powerful enabling or disabling impacts on older
age ... unsupportive environments (poor transport, poor housing, higher
levels of crime, etc) discourage active lifestyle and social participation.
Indeed, disability can be defined not as a physical state that exists
without reference to other factors but as mismatch between what a
person can do and what their environment requires of them. (House
of Lords Science and Technology Committee, 2005, p 53)
background
Since the 1970s, most Western nations have experienced a growth in inequality
(Gordon, 2006; OECD, 2008b) and, in particular, a rise in the number of
marginalised and deprived inner-city neighbourhoods (EC, 1997; Gordon and
Townsend, 2000; Lee, 2000; Lupton and Power, 2002; Power, 2009). This has raised
significant concerns related to the social and economic health of many Western
countries (Barnes et al, 2003; Levitas, 2005).
Academic research and government policy have increasingly sought to focus
on such areas (Power and Mumford, 1999; SEU, 2001a; Lupton and Power,
2002; see European Regional Development Fund, www.communities.gov.uk/
citiesandregions/european/europeanregionaldevelopment/), as there has been, in
particular, a growing need to better understand the experiences of those living in
such places and find policy solutions that improve individuals’ environmental well-
being. In the UK, urban regeneration and renewal of deprived neighbourhoods
has been a key policy focus of the New Labour government since 1997 (see SEU,
1998; SEU, 2001a). This focus has sparked wider public and academic debate
about factors that underpin marginalisation and social exclusion of individuals
and areas.
However, in the UK, academic research and social policy focus has largely
been concerned with addressing the needs of children, young people and adults
of working age living in these types of neighbourhoods (see the Policy Action
Team reports: SEU, 1998–2000). Until very recently, the experiences and needs
of older people living in poverty and social exclusion in these areas have been
ignored (Scharf et al, 2002b; Phillipson and Scharf, 2004). Given the growth in
both the ageing of the population and deprived inner-city areas, there is now an
urgent need to better understand the situation of ageing in such places and to

consider appropriate policy and practice solutions.
1
Ageing in urban neighbourhoods
The need to better understand the experiences of older people is in part driven
and supported by research that suggests that environment matters, such that those
individuals living in deprived neighbourhoods are presented with more negative
challenges (for example, high crime and antisocial behaviour, poor housing and
infrastructure, and high population turnover) than people living in non-deprived
areas (Atkinson and Kintrea, 2001; Brown et al, 2004). In addition, the research
literature suggests that the increased losses associated with later life (for example, in
terms of health; Kunzmann et al, 2000) and the quality and type of environment
(McPherson, 1998; House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, 2005)
become an important factor in determining well-being and independence, such
that, as suggested by the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee
(2005, p 53), ageing is a malleable process and ‘Environments can have a powerful
enabling or disabling impact on older age’.
Why should we revisit the relationship between the person and the
environment?
The goal of environmental gerontological research, according to Lawton (1986,
p 15), is to see a society better able to meet the needs of its ageing population:
The vulnerability of this age group makes more compelling the search
for ways of elevating behavior and experienced quality of life through
environmental means. By this line of reasoning, if we could design
housing with fewer barriers, neighbourhoods with more enriching
resources, or institutions with higher stimulating qualities, we could
improve the level of functioning of many older people more than
proportionately.
This has social and economic consequences for society and governments. ‘Ageing
in place’, and to some extent potentially ‘place in ageing’, implies an enabling
and supportive environment, such that the ‘staying put’ philosophy of current
social policy (Haldemann and Wister, 1993) needs to be guided by empirical and
theoretical research.
Recently, environmental gerontology has received criticism for ‘languishing’
and a ‘lack of innovativeness’ in theoretical and empirical development (Kendig,
2003; Wahl and Weisman, 2003). While great gains in knowledge were made in the
1970s and early 1980s (see Lawton and Nahemow, 1973; Rowles, 1978; Lawton
et al, 1982), much of the work since has sought to verify and replicate findings.
This book comes at a critical time in the field of environmental gerontology
and more broadly in the ability of nation states to prepare appropriately for an
ageing society. There is a need to revisit the knowledge currently available in
this area, identify gaps and set out a future direction of travel given trends data

and policy agendas on environmental sustainability and ageing in place. The field
of environmental gerontology has a responsibility and contribution to make to
2
Introduction
these agendas and policy development – how academics in this field and others
choose to respond to policy makers can help to shape the process and experience
of future ageing.
In a sense, environmental gerontology is languishing at a time when it should
be flourishing. The demographic profile of older people has drawn international
interest in preparing to meet the needs of an older society. According to the
United Nations (UN, 2003), ‘one out of every ten persons is now 60 years or
above’ and this is projected to increase in the proceeding years. In addition, more
older people than ever before live in urban areas and this is expected to increase
– over half the world’s older population currently lives in urban areas (51%), and
this figure is projected to increase to 62% by 2050 (UN, 2003). These trends
should raise significant concerns given growing criticism and questioning of the
age-friendliness of urban areas and the ability to meet the current needs of an
ever-increasing urbanised ageing population (Zwingle, 2002).
Environmental ageing research is significant as spaces can affect many aspects
of daily life, for example, physical and mental well-being, feelings of safety and
comfort, the level of independence, and social support (Lawton, 1990). According
to McPherson (1998, p 157, emphasis added), the environment can in turn be
influential in the process of ageing: ‘For older adults who experience changes
in health, income, or marital status, the type and quality of environment may
become an important factor in determining the level of personal well-being and
independence’. In this context, Becker (2003, p 130) argues that examining ‘the
spatial contexts in which elders live and the meaning they attach to the places
they call home is a critical component of studying the aging process’.
There is also a generally accepted notion that ageing in place is optimal from the
perspective of both the individual and the state. However, the optimality of ageing
in place has generally assumed that there is a particular quality to environments
in which people age. We have yet to ask if there are particular environmental
qualities that test optimality; specifically, given the multiple risks present in
deprived neighbourhoods (for example, high rates of crime, poor infrastructure,
disengagement of services and poor housing), can we consider ageing in place
optimal? The aim of this book is to tackle the paucity of knowledge related
to our understanding of the person–environment relationship and impacts on
well-being in particular urban neighbourhoods – inner-city deprived areas. If
environment matters in ageing, then we need to better understand the key factors
that impact on this.
The book is unique in that it draws from new cross-national empirical
research with older people in two countries across five deprived inner-city
neighbourhoods;1 not since the ground-breaking work of Peter Townsend in the
1950s have the experiences of older people living in environments characterised by
multiple risks been examined in depth. The research findings aim to fill shortfalls
in and build on knowledge around the lived experiences of older people in

contemporary inner-city neighbourhoods. The book also draws on the author’s
own experience of working on social exclusion and older people policy in central
3