IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v168y2016icp223-229.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Place-making with older persons: Establishing sense-of-place through participatory community mapping workshops

Author

Listed:
  • Fang, Mei Lan
  • Woolrych, Ryan
  • Sixsmith, Judith
  • Canham, Sarah
  • Battersby, Lupin
  • Sixsmith, Andrew

Abstract

Principles of aging-in-place emphasize the importance of creating sustainable environments that enable older people to maintain a sense of belonging, autonomy, independence, safety and security. Simply altering the built environment is insufficient for creating more inclusive environments for older persons, as creating ‘meaningful’ places for aging involves consideration of psychosocial and cultural issues that go beyond issues of physical space. This paper illustrates how applications of community-based participatory research methods, in particular, participatory community mapping workshops (PCMWs), can be used to access experiences of place, identify facilitators and barriers to accessing the built environment and co-create place-based solutions among older people and service providers in a new affordable housing development in Western Canada. Founded on tenets of empowerment and relationship building, four PCMWs were undertaken with 54 participants (N = 38 older people; N = 16 local service providers). PCMWs comprised (i) experiential group walks around the community to access understandings of place and community and (ii) mapping exercises, whereby participants articulated their place-based needs within the context of the new affordable housing development and surrounding neighbourhood. Dialogues were digitally recorded, transcribed and thematically analysed. Visual data, including photographs taken during experiential group walks were categorized and integrated into the narrative to illustrate place meanings. PCMWs enabled senior housing and social care professionals and decision-makers to co-construct knowledge with older tenants that facilitated place action and change. Key themes identified by participants included: identifying services and needs for health and wellbeing, having opportunities for social participation and overcoming cross-cultural challenges. PCMWs were found to be a nuanced method of identifying needs and resources and generating knowledge.

Suggested Citation

  • Fang, Mei Lan & Woolrych, Ryan & Sixsmith, Judith & Canham, Sarah & Battersby, Lupin & Sixsmith, Andrew, 2016. "Place-making with older persons: Establishing sense-of-place through participatory community mapping workshops," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 223-229.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:168:y:2016:i:c:p:223-229
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.07.007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953616303616
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.07.007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrews, Gavin J. & Cutchin, Malcolm & McCracken, Kevin & Phillips, David R. & Wiles, Janine, 2007. "Geographical Gerontology: The constitution of a discipline," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 151-168, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Singh, Namrita S. & Bass, Judith & Sumbadze, Nana & Rebok, George & Perrin, Paul & Paichadze, Nino & Robinson, W. Courtland, 2018. "Identifying mental health problems and Idioms of distress among older adult internally displaced persons in Georgia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 39-47.
    2. Valkiria Amaya & Matthias Chardon & Helen Klein & Thibauld Moulaert & Nicolas Vuillerme, 2022. "What Do We Know about the Use of the Walk-along Method to Identify the Perceived Neighborhood Environment Correlates of Walking Activity in Healthy Older Adults: Methodological Considerations Related ," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-37, September.
    3. Katherine Brookfield & Iain Scott & Anthea Tinker & Catharine Ward Thompson, 2020. "Perspectives on “Novel” Techniques for Designing Age-Friendly Homes and Neighborhoods with Older Adults," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-15, March.
    4. Anne Seneca Terkelsen & Christian Tolstrup Wester & Gabriel Gulis & Jørgen Jespersen & Pernille Tanggaard Andersen, 2022. "Co-Creation and Co-Production of Health Promoting Activities Addressing Older People—A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-20, October.
    5. Vrangbæk, Karsten & Scheele, Christian Elling & Kriegbaum, Margit, 2018. "Voluntary associations and co-production of health promoting activities for older adults: Experiences and policy lessons from Denmark," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(11), pages 1255-1259.
    6. Suwan Shen & Karl Kim & Dingyi Liu, 2023. "Aging in Place or Moving to Higher Ground: Older Adults’ Adaptation to Sea Level Rise in Honolulu, Hawaii," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-14, June.
    7. Petteway, Ryan J. & Mujahid, Mahasin & Allen, Amani & Morello-Frosch, Rachel, 2019. "The body language of place: A new method for mapping intergenerational “geographies of embodiment” in place-health research," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 223(C), pages 51-63.
    8. Canham, Sarah L. & Fang, Mei Lan & Battersby, Lupin & Wada, Mineko, 2019. "Understanding the functionality of housing-related support services through mapping methods and dialogue," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 33-39.
    9. Sarah Wagner, 2022. "Place-Making through Media: How Media Environments Make a Difference for Long-Term Care Residents’ Agency," Societies, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-14, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Albert Sabater & Nissa Finney, 2023. "Age segregation and housing unaffordability: Generational divides in housing opportunities and spatial polarisation in England and Wales," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(5), pages 941-961, April.
    2. Mark W Skinner & Alun E Joseph & Rachel V Herron, 2013. "Spaces of Resistance or Acquiescence? Learning from Media Discourses on the Role of Voluntarism in Ageing Communities," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(2), pages 438-450, February.
    3. Ziqi Zhang & Zhi Qiu, 2020. "Exploring Daily Activity Patterns on the Typical Day of Older Adults for Supporting Aging-in-Place in China’s Rural Environment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-20, November.
    4. Andrews, Gavin J. & Duff, Cameron, 2019. "Matter beginning to matter: On posthumanist understandings of the vital emergence of health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 226(C), pages 123-134.
    5. Maria-Eugenia Prieto-Flores & Antonio Moreno-Jiménez & Gloria Fernandez-Mayoralas & Fermina Rojo-Perez & Maria Forjaz, 2012. "The Relative Contribution of Health Status and Quality of Life Domains in Subjective Health in Old Age," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 106(1), pages 27-39, March.
    6. Klimczuk, Andrzej, 2012. "Społeczeństwo wielokulturowe i srebrna gospodarka. Wielokulturowość w kontekście starzenia się ludności [Multicultural Society and Silver Economy. Multiculturalism in the Context of an Ageing Popul," MPRA Paper 61876, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Shi Yin Chee & Toney K. Thomas, 2022. "Exploring the Normality of the Complexities of Later Life in Aged Homes: A Review," Millennial Asia, , vol. 13(1), pages 173-189, April.
    8. Clark, Andrew & Campbell, Sarah & Keady, John & Kullberg, Agneta & Manji, Kainde & Rummery, Kirstein & Ward, Richard, 2020. "Neighbourhoods as relational places for people living with dementia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 252(C).
    9. Shiwang Yu & Yong Liu & Caiyun Cui & Bo Xia, 2019. "Influence of Outdoor Living Environment on Elders’ Quality of Life in Old Residential Communities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-17, November.
    10. Rishworth, Andrea & Elliott, Susan J., 2019. "Global environmental change in an aging world: The role of space, place and scale," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 227(C), pages 128-136.
    11. Phoenix, Cassandra & Bell, Sarah L., 2019. "Beyond “Move More”: Feeling the Rhythms of physical activity in mid and later-life," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 231(C), pages 47-54.
    12. Nguyen Tan Loi & Nguyen Tien Dung & Ho Nhut Quang, 2021. "The cost effectiveness of aging in place: A literature review," HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE - SOCIAL SCIENCES, HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY, vol. 11(1), pages 40-54.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:168:y:2016:i:c:p:223-229. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.