Ageing bodies in the countryside: social geographies of rural children, youth and the elderly

1. Ageing bodies in the countryside: social geographies of rural children, youth and the elderly • Introduction • Geriatrification of the countryside • Social constructions of age • Children in the countryside: image versus experience • Youth in and out of the countryside • Summary

2. % of people 45-59 • Locals Return migrants New Settlers Average • 20 28 24 23 Geriatrification of the countryside • Geriatrification "the increased proportion of the elderly in rural areas" (Robinson, 1990, 92) • How? • Counter-urban retirement migration Perry et al (1986)

3. Geriatrification of the countryside Law and Warnes • Growth of retirees at onset of counterurbanisation • Spatial associations

4. Geriatrification of the countryside • Resource and equity equity issues • "For women, the elderly and people who do not own a car, hospital facilities in rural counties like Norfolk are becoming increasingly inaccessible" (Haynes et al, 1978, p. 45) • Many rural retirement areas under-going service rationalisation • Retirement contributed to service decline • Second homes • Loss of 'self-helpers'

5. Social constructions of the elderly • Harper (1997) argue that the elderly is not 'a self-evident category' • Identifies 4 types of aging bodies • The physical body • The cultural body • The metaphorical body • The social body

6. Social constructions of the elderly The physical body • Aging seen as a process of bodily decay and decline • Once started cannot be reversed – frailty and death • Western society obsessed with slowing, denying and marginalising the process • The elderly marginalised in space • Old people homes (many of which are in the countryside) • Retirement settlements • The frail body eventually requires care • The elderly body recognised in rural geography

7. Social constructions of the elderly The cultural body • Do people age in the same way, or do some people age earlier than others • Is age a state of the mind as much as a physical state ? • Chalmers and Joseph on the experiences of the elderly in place • "most respondents only referred to problems other people might experience as they got frail or fell ill, without acknowledging that they themselves might experience such problems" (Joseph and Chalmers, 1998, p. 33). • Elderly often very reluctant to leave a place they had grown up with • Contribute greatly to community life

8. Social constructions of the elderly The metaphorical body • Elderly represented in various ways • Growth of 'glowing' image of the elderly • "soft-sell of consumer goods, services and lifestyles to the over-fifties … exploits the hopes and aspiration of many older people… leaves those in later life, in particular the third agers or young-old, on an extended plateau of active middle age typified … as a period of youthfulness and active consumer lifestyles" (Harper, 1997, p. 191). • Rurality often key element in such representations • Images may fuel desire for rural living

9. Social constructions of the elderly • Rise of rural lifestyle communities (Phillips, 2000)

10. Social constructions of the elderly The social body • According to Harper retirement involves not just an ending of work but also 'marginalisation' from positions of power • Social marginalisatioon often accompanied by a process of spatial dislocation, or migration, which brings further marginalisation. • Caution needed: • "rural people growing old in place help sustain their village; they contribute to the long-term capacity of communities to reproduce themselves in economic and social terms" (Joseph and Chalmers,1998, p. 34) • See also Yarwood and Edwards (1995), Mahar (1991)

11. Children in the countryside: image versus experience • Ward (1990) argued that children novels such as promote an image of the countryside as a place of 'authentic', 'organic' or 'pure' childhood • Further explored by Jones (1997, 1999)

12. Children in the countryside: image versus experience • Valentine (1997) - parents in Wheldale, Peak District saw countryside: • Idyllic places for children: • open space • Space of "wholesome naturalness' (Matthews et al 2000, p. 142) - i.e. children will be close to nature • Safe refuge for children: • a space where children can gain "a more innocent, less worldly and purer experience of childhood than that offered by the city" (Valentine, 1997, p. 140) • "shelter young people from the commercial pressures of the fashion industry and peer group pressures to engage in drugs, underage sex, bullying, violent crime and bad language" (Valentine, 1997, p. 140)

13. Children in the countryside: image versus experience • Valentine (1997) - parents in Wheldale, Peak District saw countryside: • A dangerous place (abductions & abuse): • Urban strangers and dangers encroaching on rurality • Rural stranger/dangers - New Age Travellers and gypsies • Rural deviants - village idiocy (see Bell , 1997) • Rural delinquents "Several mothers … pointed out that whilst there are a number of activities in the village for primary school. Aged children, teenagers and young people are not catered for. As a result with nothing to do and nowhere to go, gangs of youths, sometimes in cars, congregate in the viilage' (Valentine, 1997, p. 142)

14. Children in the countryside: image versus experience • Parents took actions to restrict childhood spaces: • Certain places seen as 'out of bounds' for their chidren • Institutionalised children's play • "Children's free play and independent environmental exploration is constrained. Instead parents chauffeur their children to organised activities, such as ballet, swimming, music lessons, and sports coaching" (Valentine, 1997, p. 143) • Social variations to this: • "low income families having less opportunities to supervise their children in this way because of the cost and a limited access to public and private forms of transport" (Valentine, 1997 , p. 143). • Most wealthy bought land for children to play • "Safe play space is a class privilege" (p. 145)

15. Children in the countryside: image versus experience "Whilst parents are anxious … they still regard the a rural environment as a safer places to their children to grow up than an urban one" (Valentine, 1997, p. 144) • Relativistic assessment of spatiality of risk • Community character of rural space lowered risk • collective observation systems: "there were always 'eyes on the street' … to keep … children under observation" • People knowing each other and thereby able to notice "if there was a stranger at the school gate or if a parent had not arrived to collect their children • Dense system of communication "keeping parents appraised about any local incidents, enabling them to make informed decisions about their children's activities" (Valentine 1997, p. 144)

16. Children in the countryside: image versus experience "Whilst parents are anxious … they still regard the a rural environment as a safer places to their children to grow up than an urban one" (Valentine, 1997, p. 144) • Relativistic assessment of spatiality of risk • Community character of rural space lowered risk • Community not without its problem "multiple processes of sameness and othering were evident around the issue of parenting" (Valentine, 1997, p. 145) • Incomers - more spatially restrictive of children • Local- seen as 'lax parents', but have less opportunities

17. Children in the countryside: image versus experience • Matthews et al (2000) 'give voice' to children and their experiences of the 'fourth environment': • "those places beyond the home, school and playground" • "a rural geography of the outdoors" (p. 142]. • Parallels with adult views: • Liked the outdoors, because … "Locations where they could be seen by others of their own age and that, at the same time would be away from the 'adult gaze' (p. 144) • Series of differences: • "the 'social' was more important …. than the 'natural' • "children … were not 'sealed off' from elsewhere" • Rural space not open • Rural not a place of " supportive communities" • Many did not like the rural

18. Youth in and out of the countryside "from the age of 13 onwards, there were signs of growing dissatisfaction, with only 42% positively liking their local areas as a place to live …. For older children disatisfaction centres of a strong sense of 'nothing to do'"(Matthews et al, 2000, pp. 148-9) • Geriatrification does not have to stem from elderly in-migration • Also product of youth out-migration • Impacts total population in some areas, but may occur even in areas undergoing population increase

19. Summary • Age a social construct as much as a physical process • Rural geographers have studied the physical body but increasingly coming to recognise the cultural and experiential dimensions • Reconnections to earlier social geographies