IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v369y2025ics0277953625001571.html

Themes of togetherness. Examining space sharing sociality among older people

Author

Listed:
  • Thulin, Eva
  • Vilhelmson, Bertil

Abstract

Extensive research demonstrates a positive relationship between social participation and health and well-being in older adults. Yet, knowledge is scarce regarding the diverse practices older individuals employ when engaging with others in everyday life settings. For the purpose, we elaborate on the concept of togetherness to encapsulate the full spectrum of co-located activities. Togetherness embodies a spatiotemporal understanding of sociality, involving “being with” others in shared spaces, times, and projects. We empirically investigate how various forms of togetherness manifest in everyday life and explore the motivation behind immediate and more overarching projects and goals. Drawing on time-space diaries that inform in-depth interviews with 22 older adults (aged 68–85) in Gothenburg, Sweden, our findings reveal that practising everyday togetherness seldom is a standalone project with the explicit purpose of socializing. More often, sociality is integrated into projects with other primary, sometimes overlapping, goals such as maintaining everyday routines, providing structure and rhythm to daily life, breaking away from routines, thriving and feeling safe in a place, and seeking inspiration and creativity in life.

Suggested Citation

  • Thulin, Eva & Vilhelmson, Bertil, 2025. "Themes of togetherness. Examining space sharing sociality among older people," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 369(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:369:y:2025:i:c:s0277953625001571
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.117828
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953625001571
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.117828?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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eva Thulin & Bertil Vilhelmson & Tim Schwanen, 2020. "Absent Friends? Smartphones, Mediated Presence, and the Recoupling of Online Social Contact in Everyday Life," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 110(1), pages 166-183, January.
    2. Hae Young Yun, 2019. "Environmental Factors Associated with Older Adult’s Walking Behaviors: A Systematic Review of Quantitative Studies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-45, June.
    3. Levasseur, Mélanie & Richard, Lucie & Gauvin, Lise & Raymond, Émilie, 2010. "Inventory and analysis of definitions of social participation found in the aging literature: Proposed taxonomy of social activities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(12), pages 2141-2149, December.
    4. Bertil Vilhelmson & Eva Thulin & Erik Elldér, 2022. "Is ageing becoming more active? Exploring cohort-wise changes in everyday time use among the older population in Sweden," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 447-461, September.
    5. repec:plo:pone00:0197865 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Per H. Jensen & Jakob Skjøtt-Larsen, 2021. "Theoretical Challenges and Social Inequalities in Active Ageing," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-16, August.
    7. Timo Anttila & Kirsikka Selander & Tomi Oinas, 2020. "Disconnected Lives: Trends in Time Spent Alone in Finland," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 150(2), pages 711-730, July.
    8. Keiko Katagiri & Ju-Hyun Kim, 2018. "Factors determining the social participation of older adults: A comparison between Japan and Korea using EASS 2012," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(4), pages 1-15, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Dolores Majón-Valpuesta & Mélanie Levasseur, 2025. "Exploring keys to understanding the challenges of social participation in old age from a generational baby boomer perspective: a scoping review," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 1-23, March.
    2. Santini, Ziggi Ivan & Jose, Paul E. & Koyanagi, Ai & Meilstrup, Charlotte & Nielsen, Line & Madsen, Katrine R. & Koushede, Vibeke, 2020. "Formal social participation protects physical health through enhanced mental health: A longitudinal mediation analysis using three consecutive waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 251(C).
    3. Moogoor, Adithi & Močnik, Špela & Yuen, Belinda, 2022. "Neighbourhood environmental influences on older adults’ physical activities and social participation in Singapore: A photovoice study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 310(C).
    4. Enghin Atalay, 2024. "A twenty-first century of solitude? Time alone and together in the United States," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(1), pages 1-33, March.
    5. Bach Q. Ho & Kunio Shirahada, 2022. "Older People’s Knowledge Creation Motivations for Sustainable Communities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    6. Chen, Anqi & Ang, Shannon, 2026. "Social participation and cognitive function in Chinese older couples: Urban-rural variations in partner effects," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 389(C).
    7. Dury, Sarah & Stas, Lara & Switsers, Lise & Duppen, Daan & Domènech-Abella, Joan & Dierckx, Eva & Donder, Liesbeth De, 2021. "Gender-related differences in the relationship between social and activity participation and health and subjective well-being in later life," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    8. Muhamad Rizki & Tri Basuki Joewono & Yusak O. Susilo, 2025. "The influence of app function evolution on transport SuperApp use behaviour over time," Transportation, Springer, vol. 52(5), pages 2075-2116, October.
    9. Dawn Joseph & Caroline Niekerk, 2021. "Particip-active Musical Performance: Quality of Life at a Seniors’ Village in South Africa," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 16(2), pages 723-737, April.
    10. Mohammad Paydar & Asal Kamani Fard & Marzieh Khaghani, 2020. "Pedestrian Walkways for Health in Shiraz, Iran, the Contribution of Attitudes, and Perceived Environmental Attributes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-19, September.
    11. Josefine Lampinen & Mia Conradsson & Fredrica Nyqvist & Birgitta Olofsson & Yngve Gustafson & Ingeborg Nilsson & Håkan Littbrand, 2022. "Loneliness among very old people with and without dementia: prevalence and associated factors in a representative sample," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1441-1453, December.
    12. Mohammad Paydar & Asal Kamani Fard & Verónica Gárate Navarrete, 2023. "Design Characteristics, Visual Qualities, and Walking Behavior in an Urban Park Setting," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-23, September.
    13. Elena Del Barrio & Sara Marsillas & Tine Buffel & An-Sofie Smetcoren & Mayte Sancho, 2018. "From Active Aging to Active Citizenship: The Role of (Age) Friendliness," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(8), pages 1-16, August.
    14. Ka-Man Leung & Kai-Ling Ou & Pak-Kwong Chung & Cecilie Thøgersen-Ntoumani, 2021. "Older Adults’ Perceptions toward Walking: A Qualitative Study Using a Social-Ecological Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-19, July.
    15. Yuki Soma & Ayane Sato & Kenji Tsunoda & Naruki Kitano & Takashi Jindo & Takumi Abe & Tomohiro Okura, 2021. "Relationships between Participation in Volunteer-Managed Exercises, Distance to Exercise Facilities, and Interpersonal Social Networks in Older Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study in Japan," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-11, November.
    16. Tim Goedemé & Tess Penne & Otto Swedrup & Karel Van den Bosch & Bérénice Storms, 2019. "Exploring common ground for defining adequate social participation in 24 EU capital cities," Working Papers 1912, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    17. Miranda Rutenfrans-Stupar & Tine Regenmortel & René Schalk, 2019. "How to Enhance Social Participation and Well-Being in (Formerly) Homeless Clients: A Structural Equation Modelling Approach," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 145(1), pages 329-348, August.
    18. R. Gordon Rinderknecht & Daniela V. Negraia & Sophie Lohmann & Emilio Zagheni, 2023. "Understanding the growth of solitary leisure in the U.S., 1965 – 2018," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2023-025, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    19. Chen, Jen-Hao & Lauderdale, Diane S. & Waite, Linda J., 2016. "Social participation and older adults' sleep," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 164-173.
    20. Fujihara, Satoko & Tsuji, Taishi & Nakagomi, Atsushi & Miyaguni, Yasuhiro & Hanazato, Masamichi & Muto, Go & Kondo, Katsunori, 2023. "Association of community-level social capital with dementia: A multilevel nine-year longitudinal study using data from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 338(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:369:y:2025:i:c:s0277953625001571. 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.