Suburb as an affective space of ageing-in-place

Abstract

An increasing number of older people live longer at home. However, ageing-in-place poses challenges in the suburbs. This article examines the suburb of Varissuo in Turku as an affective space of ageing-in-place. Feelings, emotions, and affects influence our view of space. This article pays attention to affects that are shared, collective and pushing in social situations. Twenty people in Varissuo were interviewed.

Affects are relevant to how older people use and produce suburban space and how ageing-in-place can become reality in a meaningful way. Fear regulates the use of suburbs during certain seasons and hours of the day. Concern about services raised collective irritation and will to intervene with concrete measures. Communality may help attachment to the suburb, but it can also be felt as negative from outside the community. Many residents had lived in the area for a long time and felt rooted in the area. However, various changes had caused negative feelings and emphasized nostalgia among older people. Nostalgia may also be a pushing or an obstructing affect. For example, the reputation of Varissuo as a “problem-suburb” raised the need to defend the area. The study also showed how suburban-related political decisions play a role in affective ageing-in-place.