Independence, housing and the experience of ageing: challenges to taken-for-granted images

Abstract

The legitimising and authoritative knowledge of the sciences of ageing have contributed to rather than challenged the problematisation of ageing. Using a Foucaludian perspective images of ageing were put aside so that the 'realities" of older people's lives and their experiences, would inform theoretical development. Starting from the posiuon that discources which place moral values on independence and self reliance, shape our consciousness would also inform the 'subjectification' of older people as much as other experiences accumulated over a lifetime, the objective of this research is to identify how people exercise agency in terms of securing and maintaining independence in later life. Housing, especially home ownership identified by life course analysts as a significant factor in the maintenance of independence in later life, was used to assess its contribution from the perspective of older people themselves. In this regard the effects of the interdependence of public policy on private aspirations is assessed together with the meanings attributed by older people to the construct independence. The paper reports the findings of in-depth interviews across a broad range of people of various ages and experiences taking into account gender, class and race/ethnicity. Australian born, Vietnamese, Arabic, Portuguese and Greek immigrants contributed to the research with the assistance of interpreters for community languages. The findings suggest that older people are more flexible, resourceful and independent than dominant discourses on ageing.