Ageing in (a New Zealand) Place: Ethnography, Policy and Practice

Sally Keeling

Independence and ageing in place have been central themes in recent policy and practice in New Zealand, yet neither concept has been widely examined in terms of what it might mean for older people themselves. The Mosgiel Longitudinal Study of Ageing, launched in 1988, included extended open-ended interviews with older people.

This paper explores different aspects of independence and how it is articulated by the research participants. It also examines the living situations of older people, and their views on deciding where and how to live, the meaning of “home”, and what they think of Mosgiel.

Three common themes arise with implications for the policy of ageing in place: many younger relatives had moved away, thereby undermining the ability to age in placesome older people move to retirement homes or villages in order to be independent of family support; and the growing provision of home-based services in line with ageing in place may need to take privacy and intimacy barriers into account.

Overall I argue that detailed ethnographic studies of ageing in particular communities contribute a much-needed specificity and detail to the more general understanding of policy and practice relating to older people.