RURAL CHANGE AND THE ELDERLY IN RURAL PLACES - COMMENTARIES FROM NEW-ZEALAND

Rural New Zealand has been transformed in the last decade. Policies pr ogressively introduced by the state since 1984 have led to significant changes in the economic and social fabric of rural places. While macr o-economic changes have attracted comment, the local impacts on some g roups have not been widely documented and are not well understood. Thi s paper seeks to reveal some of the effects of 'restructuring' on the rural elderly by reporting comments on individual life experiences. Tw o intentions underlie this endeavour; to make evident and valorise the lived experience of a group often overlooked in rural places and to c omment on the reflection of this lived experience in contemporary appr oaches to rural studies. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights res erved.