A question raised in this paper was how the assumption that communities have features that make them liveable can be reconciled with the deprived conditions of older urban dwellers. Insights from our findings suggest that, while we have begun to address this apparent paradox, there is need to further articulate and extend our conceptualization of liveability of older people.
Home and neighbourhood liveability
Our main finding is that the near environments of home and neighbourhood are significantly associated with life satisfaction. Within the home environment, household amenities, people, financial resources and safety were all significantly associated with life satisfaction. Similar themes were found in the associations of features of the neighbourhood: services and amenities, people and safety.
These findings are consistent with gerontological research that positions both home and neighbourhood as important contexts for older persons. In accordance with Bohman et al. (
2007) contention that daily life is difficult, our findings of important features of the near environment illustrate that older adults in our study find home and neighbourhood most liveable when these environments are safe and provide basic comfort, convenience and resources.
While consistent with previous research on the importance of home and neighbourhood, our findings also are somewhat at odds with assumptions from developed countries related to the important elements of home and neighbourhood. In that work, home often is positioned as a place in which people connect to memories, find comfort in familiar objects and recreate identity (Rowles and Chaudhury
2005). In turn, neighbourhoods are social places of public life (Gardner
2011) supported by age-friendly features of green spaces, lighting, benches, etc. (Vine et al.
2012b). In our study, there is little sense of positive connection to either home or neighbourhood where themes of liveability are more linked to safety and access to basic resources.
The finding that outdoor water access was positively associated with life satisfaction seems counterintuitive since convenience and safety afforded by having clean water in one’s home are viewed as constituting a major gain to the poor. However, at present, free water to dwellings is provided in eThekwini only to the poorest residents (Sutherland and Lewis
2012). For the majority, it is more likely that they now may have access to clean water in line with RDP standards of public taps within 200 metres from the dwelling (Møller and Devey
2003). For them, a reliable water supply may well be associated with life satisfaction. Also, we found that a higher total monthly income was negatively related to life satisfaction. This seems at odds with evidence that financial capability provides access to resources. Reduced life satisfaction may result from normative pressure to share their pensions with household members and the risk of financial abuse when the older person has the only household income (Bohman et al.
2007). Studies suggest that shifts take place in household types when older Black Africans become pension eligible (Schatz et al.
2014). The multigenerational household might be formed so that older persons can care for and provide income to extended kin (Schatz et al.
2014). These topics need further investigation including examining which factors impact the use of water in daily life as well as how older people make decisions about expenditures in multi-generation households.
Our findings may result in part from the historical context of apartheid that has left a mark on the township experience of the INK. Older people have lived through a period when their communities were among the least desirable of places. As Kaal (
2011) would say, environments of the older people in this study have none of the criteria essential for a liveable community. Research in other settings in South Africa has shown that older adults living in such communities have little connection to place, and they see their neighbourhoods as being bereft of services and places that might benefit them (Roos et al.
2014).
Part of the reason for our findings also might lie in our interview protocol. In deference to the deprived living conditions of participants in this study, they were not asked about aesthetics of their settings, about community walkability, length of residence or connection to place. We need to think further about the meaningfulness of home and neighbourhood to people living in places not of their choosing. And we need to challenge the ‘received wisdom’ of home and neighbourhood as places of comfort and support.
Another important reason for our findings may come from the gendered experiences of ageing in South Africa. South African society predominantly positions women as vulnerable poor, with heavy responsibility for family caregiving, victims of violence, having little access to education or paid employment (Mosoetsa
2005). Gender was not significant in our multivariate models. However, given women’s and men’s considerable differences in family connections and household responsibilities, future research might explore the relative importance of aspects of home and community as well as broader contexts such as employment opportunities in liveability for older women and men.
Liveability in context
In an earlier section of this paper, we cited Van Kamp et al. (
2003) who define liveability as an assessment by individuals of environmental features most relevant to their lives. The gerontological tradition of documenting the importance of home and neighbourhood in the lives of older people and our findings of considerable proportions of variance explained by these two environments suggests that the Van Kamp and colleagues’ definition is apt. It is individuals themselves who are in the best position to assess the liveability of their communities.
Yet our findings also suggest that a definition of liveability based solely on a personal assessment of the most relevant environmental features is insufficient. Broader contexts are at play that constrain or increase the potential for near environments of neighbourhood and home to be experienced as liveable. Perhaps foremost among these is the historic context that led the INK to be designated as an area of severe environmental degradation. There is much to be learned as well about contemporary contexts. How do old age pension policies influence the prevalence and depth of poverty? How might better access to employment for younger adults reduce financial strain in households? Might barriers to inclusion in amenities of the broader community such as transportation be amenable to municipal policy interventions? The influence of many of these contexts is indirect and may be invisible to older adults whose near environments have a more obvious influence on their daily activities. As Phillipson (
2007, p. 337) notes, “macro-sociological and economic forces, including globalisation, work on the ground to influence the daily lives of older people as well as the neighbourhoods in which they live”. It is at these more macro levels that policy interventions could make a difference in creating places that are more liveable to older adults.
In conclusion, we believe that our study has highlighted some of the challenges inherent in home and neighbourhood environments of older people. Themes of safety, access to basic amenities and to material resources are similar across home and neighbourhood environments. This suggests that the conceptual boundaries between them should be reconsidered. Approaches to liveability that are person-centred and yet set within contexts beyond home and neighbourhood may prove fruitful in setting research policy agendas that will have most impact on liveability of older people in deprived areas.