Many municipalities in Sweden have decreasing population rates combined with an increasing proportion of older people. Such a demographic shift will influence the way life is led as the foundation for service provision and social activities becomes undermined. This leads us to question the extent to which shrinking municipalities can be considered socially sustainable. The aim of the paper was to investigate older peoples participation in the local community and to study the perceived changes in the local community as reported by older people and how these are experienced. A postal survey was sent out to all inhabitants aged 80 years and older living in their own household in three small, semi-rural municipalities in southern Sweden, in total 1386. The response rate was 60%. Thus, focus was on the experiences of the oldest individuals. The research questions analysed for this study concerned the ageing populations social networks, community involvement, car dependence and service provision. The results are used to discuss the social sustainability of the societies in which these people have lived for a long time.

The number of older residents in group homes for people with intellectual disability (ID) is increasing. This interview study was focused on how group home staff addresses issues of ageing and being old among people with ID. Twelve members of staff at four different group homes in Sweden were interviewed. Findings revealed old age as something unarticulated in the group home. Group home staff felt unprepared to meet age-related changes in residents. The study also revealed that group home staff had a one-tracked way of describing the process of ageing among people with ID, seemingly rooted in a medical paradigm of disability. This study suggests that there is a need to raise issues and give guidance related to ageing and ID in disability policy documents in order to support the development of a formal culture that addresses old age and ID in disability services.

Background: Many people ageing with intellectual disabilities (ID) age in place in group homes. Participation is a central concept in support and service to people with ID, but age is often a determining factor for participation among this group. Choice and control are dimensions of participation.

Aim: The aim of this article is to explore how choice and control in the everyday life of people ageing with ID is expressed and performed in the group home’s semi-private spaces.

Material and methods: Participant observations and interviews with residents and staff were conducted in four different group homes in Sweden that had older residents.

Results: Four categories were found that can be understood as aspects of choice and control in the group home’s semi-private spaces in the everyday life of people ageing with ID. These categories included aspects such as space and object, time and routines, privacy, and a person-centred approach.

Conclusion and significance: People ageing with ID are vulnerable when it comes to maintaining choice and control in various situations in the home’s semi-private spaces. It is argued that occupational therapists should include this occupational arena in their evaluations and interventions for people ageing with ID.

I artikelns redovisas resultat av en enkät till gamla (80 år och äldre) i tre landsbygdskommuner om hur de uppfattar sin vardag och att bli gammal.

Retirement has recently been studied as a complex process that affects people’s lives in many different ways (Teuscher 2010; Grenier 2011; Halleröd, Örestig and Stattin 2013). Retirement implies changes in time-space use, interruption in routines and changed social patterns. Leisure activities, shopping, errands and rest are no longer determined by the working life rhythm. New time-space constraints might at the same time occur that limit the individual’s actions, such as reduced income, new or increased commitments towards children and grandchildren, involvement in associations or part-time work (Kleiber and Nimrod, 2009; Szinovacz et al., 2001; Van den Bogaard et al., 2013).

A vast amount of research from different fields has focused on the implications of retirement for wellbeing (Bender 2012; Wang 2007), adjustment (Van Solinge and Henkens 2008), identity (Teucher 2010), volunteering (Van den Bogaard et.al., 2013) and physical activity (Lahti et al. 2011). So far, only a few studies have investigated everyday activities and timespace use among older people in general and the post-World War II generation in particular (Chatzitheochari and Arber 2011; Gauthier and Smeeding 2003). In many studies of  time-space use, the aim has been to illuminate the juggling of everyday activities that occurs and to deal with the balance between work, leisure and family (Schwanen and de Jong 2008; Kwan 2000; Scholten, Friberg and Sanden 2012). Naturally, retired people have not been included in those studies, although many older people play an important role in the lives of families with small children (Schwanen 2008) and seek supporting and leading roles as citizens (cf. Gagliardi, et al. 2007; Leinonen 2011; Liechty, Yarnal and Kerstetter 2012; McCormack et al. 2008; Nimrod and Adoni 2006; Sperazza and Banerjee 2010). Little is known about the expectations this generation has on retirement and its demands for activities. The aim of this study is therefore to explore newly retired peoples everyday activities. What activities do they take part in and where are these activities carried out? In what respect, and for what reasons, do activities change or stay the same upon retirement?

The remaining of this paper begins with a discussion of the implications of retirement on everyday activities in accordance to previous research. The time-geographical perspective and concepts used here for studying activities is then presented. That is followed by a description of methods, data and analysis, before the empirical analysis of travel diaries and qualitative interviews is given. The paper ends with a discussion of the results in relation to previous research.

Uppfattningarna om vad det innebär att vara gammal och bo och leva på landsbygden varierar. Somliga ser bygder med gemenskap och starka nätverk - miljöer där äldre kan åldras väl. Andra ser bygder som avfolkas och blir allt glesare, orter som försvinner, samhällen som åldras - miljöer där äldre får växande svårigheter i sin vardag.

Forskningen har få svar på frågor om vad landsbygdens förändringar innebär för äldres och gamlas livsvillkor.

I boken redovisas en undersökning av hur de äldre själva upplever sin vardag. Den är gjord i Valdemarsvik, Ydre och Åtvidaberg, tre mindre kommuner i södra Östergötland. Undersökningen har resulterat i ett omfattande och delvis unikt material 718 personer har besvarat frågor om bl.a. boende, service, bilkörning, umgänge med grannar och vänner, familjeförhållanden, hjälp och stöd som man får eller ger till andra och hur man ser på att vara gammal och leva på landsbygden eller i en mindre ort. Många har förutom att svara på frågorna lämnat kommentarer och synpunkter. Dessa handlar om allt från aktiviteter man ägnar sig åt till hälsans avgörande betydelse, ensamheten, platstillhörigheten och närheten till naturen.

Purpose

To investigate car use among newly retired people, to explore to what extent car transport is used for everyday mobility and how it is valued in comparison to other transport modes.

Methods

The data consists of travel diaries and qualitative interviews with 24 individuals, aged between 61 and 67, living in a middle-sized Swedish city. They were recruited via the local branch of one of the main associations of pensioners, one large employer in the municipality, and through another study. The informants filled in a travel diary during 1 week that were analysed by VISUAL- TimePAcTS, an application for visualising and exploring activity diary data. The semi-structured qualitative interviews were analysed using a qualitative content analysis.

Results

The car was used for several trips daily and often for short trips. The informants had a lot of everyday projects that they would not be able to perform if they did not have access to a car. The importance of the car does not seem to have changed upon retirement, albeit it is partly used for other reasons than before. The informant’s social context implies new space-time constraints. Commitments to family members, engagement in associations and spouses’ occupations affect how much and when they use the car, and their overall mobility.

Conclusions

In contrast to much research on older people’s mobility that has studied slightly older people, this study have focused on a specific group that are relatively healthy, well-off, and have the possibility to choose between different modes of transport. By combining travel diaries and qualitative interviews, we have explored how newly retired people reason as regard their travel behaviour but also how they actually travel. Although the car was used more than other transport modes, being able to walk and cycle now that they had more time as retirees was highly valued. Our results indicate that urban residents that are retiring now and in the future are a key target group in transport planning when it comes to reduce car use in favour of slow modes of transport.

The aim of this article is to explore how older people with intellectual disability (ID), who live in group accommodation, describe their lived experience in relation to ageing and later life. The study adopted a phenomenological approach, based on the concept of life-world. Individual, qualitative interviews were conducted with twelve people with ID (five men, seven women), between the ages of 48 and 71 (m=64), who lived in four different group accommodation units in southern Sweden. A descriptive phenomenological analysis method was used, which disclosed a structure consisting of themes and subthemes. The findings of the study reveal the informants’ lived experience of ageing and later life as a multifaceted phenomenon, expressed through the two themes, “age as a process of change” and “existential aspects of ageing”, each with three sub themes. along with six substantialising[SK1]  subthemes. The body is an essential element in their experience of ageing and growing old, and in how this experience is expressed. The study also finds social, cultural and historical dimensions of the life-world to be important in the informants’ experience of ageing and later life. This supports understanding of  the existence of a collective life-world for older people with ID, the unique experiences the informants share because of their disability and its consequences for their life course.

This article aims to explore ways in which members of staff in group homes for people with intellectual disability experience participation, and what participation means for older people with intellectual disability. Qualitative interviews were performed with 15 members of staff at group homes in Sweden. The findings of this study are illustrated by considering two interacting themes and six subthemes. These involve staff experiences of the meaning of participation and factors which facilitate or inhibit it. The meaning of participation was expressed as doing and feeling. Staff described that participation for older people with intellectual disability was influenced by the individual characteristics of the residents, such as the relationship between age and disability. They also expressed the view that participation was influenced by organizational and physical contextual factors such as economics, time and space as well as the social environment. The latter included staff knowledge and skills, family and peers.