Socio-spatial aspects of ageing in an urban context: an example from three Czech Republic cities

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine how older people make sense of the changing urban environment – that is, how they experience, perceive and interpret their everyday interaction with its materiality, as well as their social ties, networks and relations. The results, based on seven focus groups and 37 individual in-depth interviews with older residents of the three most populous Czech cities, show how older people maintain the continuity of their activities, autonomy and independence within the limits of their personal resources in an active relationship with a changing urban environment and within the post-socialist context. The research supports the results of former studies that emphasise the ability of older adults to negotiate their position and actively cope with change while they age in place.