AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF OLD AGE IN A U.S. RETIREMENT COMMUNITY (UNITED STATES).
Contributors: Catholic University of America.
Published: 1987
Number of pages: 261
Subjects: Anthropology, Cultural.; Health Sciences, Nursing.; Gerontology.
Description: This ethnography describes insider resident views of being old and growing older--continually adapting to the exigencies of old age in Walden III, a U.S. retirement community planned for persons fifty-five years of age and older.

Cultural analysis, which utilized native texts as units of analysis, was the principal method used to penetrate the everyday life of residents at Walden III. Working inductively, taking common-sense notions, stereotypes, taken-for-granted assumptions, recurrent themes and symbols, as well as ideals and categorizations, this researcher discerned how the sociocultural world of Walden III was constructed, in addition to apprehending social boundary formation in process.

Ideology specific to collective representations about retirement, homeownership, the meaning of material possessions in one's environment, health and wellness, and individualism and community formation were particularly significant to residents and gave them the cultural apparatus for talking about the larger reality of old age in white, middle-class U.S. society. Each of these areas was separately explored. Taken as a whole, they constituted a unique system of meaning as residents struggled to fashion an appropriate social world for their old age.

This dissertation documents the transition of Walden elders to a new home, and to a different way of life. They were in transition, being no longer members of a young age category, characterized by activity, independence and productivity, yet not old enough to consider themselves feeble, frail and dependent. They were caught "in-between" two social categories--being neither young nor old-old. By choosing to live in this retirement community, residents were attempting to find a place where they fit, a social world, and a residence they could truly call "home.".

In many respects, the Walden setting is a microcosm of larger society. As part of the cultural whole it is reflective of larger sociocultural processes. This ethnography links the social world of the Walden III retirement community with the broader reality of being old and growing older in contemporary U.S. society.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-03, Section: A, page: 0538.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA, 1987.

School code: 0043.