G. Laws, THE LAND OF OLD-AGE - SOCIETY CHANGING ATTITUDES TOWARD URBAN BUILT ENVIRONMENTS FOR ELDERLY PEOPLE, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 83(4), 1993, pp. 672-693
I explore the reciprocity operating between age relations and the buil
t environment by presenting an age-sensitive reading of urban history
in the U.S. By focusing on the segregation of the elderly, intergenera
tional conflicts are shown to have clear territorial expressions. The
resultant built environments of aging occur both by design and default
. State policies are implicated in the creation of ageist built enviro
nments. In some instances, policies explicitly aimed at the elderly re
sult in age-segregated residential environments while, in other cases,
policies directed at the built environment have profound implications
for age relations. Further, private-sector views of the consumption p
otential of elderly people also determine the types of residential env
ironments available to old people. I argue that the urban built enviro
nment is simultaneously a cause and an effect of ageist attitudes.