Data from the Foley Longitudinal Survey, an ongoing study of personality and well-being outcomes among older adults, provides new opportunities to better understand how older adult think about “community”. How do we think about community — in terms of people, places and institutions — and how do these ideas differ from definitions in the academic literature?
DATA From CH+SE Community Narratives Study.
“People will look at you in your eye when you pass them at, at any time of day and say good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Strangers stop strangers and just start talking on the street about the beauty of the area. Its our community.”
Interestingly, urbanites typically discussed connections to place and people as being important, though place was a central concern. In this case, being in the city center of Chicago, IL served as a symblic representation of what it meant to belong to a community. Suburbanites often placed a higher value on relational (neighbor-to-neighbor) communities or online communities, rather than tying community to a specific place.
“Ironically I think of it as kind of a combination of certain things. And I think mostly driven by social media/technology. I now think of it as much more amorphous and less geographical, less physicality of it.”
“Mary,” from Evanston also states, “I would say that the community can be anywhere, anything from a circle of friends, to people I used to work with, to my family.” Other suburbanites echo this sentiment, which is useful for identifying potential ‘hotspots’ of social isolation where no community exists.
“I really have a lack of feeling of belonging to a community. I feel like I don’t have many friends. I don’t have a lot in common with the people who live around me. People have moved on. People have kind of changed. I’ve probably changed. And that’s one thing that I really kind of lack in living around here now is a sense of community.”
Understanding how adults make sense of community can help cities and policymakers identify gaps in the local social infrastructure. Documenting when and where older adults begin to feel disconnected from their networks can facilitate early responses to loneliness by integrating stronger neighbor-to-neighbor social supports, adding companion services, and supporting community participation opportunities to avoid complete isolation and withdrawal.
