From Environmental Stress to Spatial Expulsion-Rethinking Concepts of Socio-Spatial Exclusion in Later Life

Anna Wanka (1) , Thibauld Moulaert (2) , Matthias Drilling (3)

1 Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main
2 PACTE - Pacte, Laboratoire de sciences sociales
3 Institute of Social Planning, Organisational Change and Urban Development University of Applied Sciences, School of Social Work

Gerontology has a longstanding tradition of researching the relationship between older adults and their socio-spatial environments. However, environmental gerontology often shares a positivistic understanding of space as either 'prosthetic' or a stressor, and consequently searches for the "best fit" between a person and their environment. In this paper we argue for a stronger theoretical corpus on social and territorial exclusion in later life by exploring concepts from urban and environmental sociology, as well as their usefulness for gerontological thinking., In doing so, we go discuss trans-European research traditions beyond the hegemonic body of Anglo-Saxon literature. In conclusion, we discuss how gerontology and sociology might exchange to build a stronger theoretical background on the relations between age, space and exclusion.

Mots clés: critical gerontology; environmental gerontology; urban sociology; age-friendly cities and communities; spatial exclusion

Domaines: Sociologie

Anna Wanka, Thibauld Moulaert, Matthias Drilling. From Environmental Stress to Spatial Expulsion-Rethinking Concepts of Socio-Spatial Exclusion in Later Life. International Journal of Ageing and Later Life, 2018, 12 (2), pp.25-51. ⟨10.3384/ijal.1652-8670.18402⟩. ⟨hal-01895267v2⟩