"Those people" and troubles talk - Social typing and community construction in senior public housing

Community has developed as an increasingly important research topic in gero ntology. As we search for the ever elusive sense of community and social in tegration among the aged, gerontologists have strangely left aside, for the most part, the interactional formation of community as a phenomenon. How d o elders actually achieve this thing in their daily lives? By what interact ional mechanisms is it constructed? Using data gathered from an ethnography of a senior public housing complex, I argue that in this particular neighb orhood, community is accomplished by residents through "troubles talk." An important component of this shared talk are social types indigenous to the complex. The act of social typing allows the residents to organize, categor ize, and classify each other, providing recognizable and commonly held know ledge of each other, a vital component of community. (C) 2001 Elsevier Scie nce Inc. All rights reserved.