The importance of place attachment in the understanding of ageing in place: "the stones know me"

Lebrusan Murillo, Irene; Gómez García, María Victoria Paloma

Publication:
The importance of place attachment in the understanding of ageing in place: "the stones know me"

dc.affiliation.dpto	UC3M. Departamento de Análisis Social	es
dc.affiliation.grupoinv	UC3M. Grupo de Investigación: Trabajo, Familia y Género	es
dc.contributor.author	Lebrusan Murillo, Irene
dc.contributor.author	Gómez García, María Victoria Paloma
dc.date.accessioned	2023-06-29T09:20:28Z
dc.date.available	2023-06-29T09:20:28Z
dc.date.issued	2022-12-02
dc.description	This article belongs to the Special Issue Friendly Residential Environments for Ageing in Place with Autonomy and Independence.	en
dc.description.abstract	As academic literature has shown, there is a preference among older adults to experience old age independently, in their own homes, giving shape to what has been called ageing in place. This phenomenon links residence, life cycle, and the experience of old age. Although it depends on many factors (housing characteristics, the elderly's economy, or their social support, among others) it is based on place attachment as a key aspect, which comprises two different but interwoven dimensions: the home (private space) and the neighbourhood (social space), understood as an extended sphere of the home. Despite its importance, and beyond the consensus that the time spent in a place increases attachment to it, the processes whereby place attachment is constructed by the elderly and the role of the experience of neighbourhood are little known. This article intended to delve into the meaning of place attachment, its importance, and how it is built by the elderly population in urban areas. For this purpose, a qualitative study was conducted in Spain, selecting Madrid (the biggest city in the country) as a case study of how place attachment is shaped in an urban setting. To obtain in-depth information, data were collected through ethnographic interviews with 37 people aged 65-95 and 1 focus group among elderly aged 65-71. The most relevant finding of the qualitative analysis is the emotional significance of attachment to the local space as an element that enables continuity-as opposed to the rupture to which we associate old age- in the experience of the life cycle of the elderly. It should be noted that some of the results are conditioned by the specificities of Spanish society, particularly with regard to family ties. Potential extrapolations to other realities should take this point into account.	en
dc.format.extent	21
dc.identifier.bibliographicCitation	Lebrusán, I., & Gómez, M. V. (2022). The Importance of Place Attachment in the Understanding of Ageing in Place: “The Stones Know Me”. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(24), 17052.	en
dc.identifier.doi	https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192417052
dc.identifier.issn	1661-7827
dc.identifier.publicationfirstpage	1
dc.identifier.publicationissue	24, 17052
dc.identifier.publicationlastpage	21
dc.identifier.publicationtitle	International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health	en
dc.identifier.publicationvolume	19
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10016/37674
dc.identifier.uxxi	AR/0000032243
dc.language.iso	eng
dc.publisher	MDPI
dc.rights	© 2022 by the authors.	en
dc.rights	Atribución 3.0 España	*
dc.rights.accessRights	open access	en
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/	*
dc.subject.eciencia	Política	es
dc.subject.eciencia	Sociología	es
dc.subject.other	Ageing in place	en
dc.subject.other	Intimate strangers	en
dc.subject.other	Place attachment	en
dc.title	The importance of place attachment in the understanding of ageing in place: "the stones know me"	en
dc.type	research article	*
dc.type.hasVersion	VoR	*
dspace.entity.type	Publication