Grove, Hannah (2022) Combining qualitative and geo-spatial approaches to explore older adults’ lived experiences of ageing – as well as they can – in place. PhD thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth.

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Abstract

This thesis explores the lived experience of older people within the Greater Dublin Area of Ireland, to determine how they define and enact ageing well in place. It combines qualitative and spatial methods, including preliminary focus groups (Stage 1), as well as in-depth interviews, mapping exercises, and go-along interviews with older people in two contrasting Study Areas (Stage 2). Results provide participant accounts of the importance of getting out and about, showing how this varies between participants and how it fluctuates over time. Findings reveal why getting out and about is valued by participants, focusing on the importance of connecting with others, and presents both positive and negative experiences of social interaction. Results demonstrate the places or phases where these interactions occur or do not occur, the nature of these interactions and relationships, as well as how older adults develop schedules and routines to maximise opportunities to interact with others. Drawing in depth on four individual lifeworlds with health and mobility challenges, geo-narratives and annotated maps are presented to highlight how getting out and about is navigated and negotiated, based on dynamic personal and environmental contexts, as well as what matters most to that individual for a good quality of life. By integrating and empirically grounding ageing in place and ageing well, this thesis produces a lay and relational conceptual framework of ageing – as well as you can – in place, which emphasises the need for pragmatic and subjective definitions of ageing well and recognises the importance of engaging beyond the home to feel and be ‘in place’ to connect with others. Finally, some recommendations are offered to policymakers, which could support older people not just to age in place, but to age as well as they might want.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Keywords:	qualitative and geo-spatial approaches; explore; older adults; lived experiences; ageing;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Geography
Item ID:	16560
Depositing User:	IR eTheses
Date Deposited:	22 Sep 2022 10:53
URI:
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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