大都市圏郊外地域に居住する高齢者の生活空間と定住意志 : 埼玉県越谷市の事例

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Administrators concerned with aging and social gerontologists share a growing interest in so-called“familiar areas”, that is, places where the elderly have been living for a long time and have prolonged social relations. Government policies now aim to provide social services based on this concept.However, there is no clear definition of the concept of“familiar areas”. For example, there is little awareness of the following points: 1) What is the spatial range of the “familiar area”?; 2) What is the basis for this new expectation that the elderly should live and be cared for in“familiar areas”?; and 3) How will the“familiar area”idea, and the residential preferences of the elderly, change in the future?To clarify these three points, the authors surveyed the spatial range of daily out-of-home activities and social relations of the elderly, which in this research is referred to as life space. Second, the authors asked the elderly whether they expect to continue living in the present place (area). Third, the relationship between the spatial range of the life space and attributes of respondents were examined. For the study area, Koshigaya city, Saitama prefecture, a Tokyo Metropolitan suburb, was selected because of the rapid increase of the elderly there, in combination with great changes in the attributes of the elderly population that appear to be occurring simultaneously. In the survey, a questionnaire for both elderly wives and husbands was employed.The findings can be summarized as follows:(1) In the case of two-thirds of the respondents, the life space of the elderly is limited to the local area, including the neighboring cities as well as Koshigaya City. Others visit with some frequency the remainder of the Tokyo Metropolitan area outside Koshigaya City.(2) Groups with higher academic credentials, professional or clerical careers, and immigration experiences from non metropolitan areas, tend to expand their life space beyond the local area. Therefore, the authors can assume that the changing attributes of the elderly population in the future will be accompanied by an expansion of life space. People who expand their life space beyond the local area tend to develop far fewer connections to their local area. Thus, the authors anticipate a future crisis for the group that lacks local social relations because, as the elderly age, it is difficult to maintain mobility.(3) Although most elderly persons wish to continue to live in the local area, only about a half of those people who moved to the area in their later days indicate an attachment to the new local area. So, there is no denying a growing tendency for the elderly to either lose or even fail to develop an attachment to the local area, raising questions about their commitment to continue living there.(4) Consequently, the approach that the elderly should be cared and supported for in a“familiar area”is considered to be a proper one for government policy. It is important for the realization of this policy, however, that in order for it to be effective it must identify a means of nurturing the social relations between the elderly and the environment in which they dwell.
人文地理学会の論文

大都市圏郊外地域に居住する高齢者の生活空間と定住意志 : 埼玉県越谷市の事例

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