Space, so far, in gerontology

At one level, originating largely from a positivistic tradition that first emerged in the 1950s and 1960s, space has been understood in gerontology as an underlying template for all human agency. As a featureless, neutral surface on which life unfolds (whether this be singularly or collectively, at micro or global scales). Such an understanding at least initially paints a picture of space as something relatively abstract and meaningless. It is, however, when ‘things’ (such as people, facilities or political boundaries) are located in space, that space represents substantial features of, and challenges in, human life. This is because, in research terms, space then becomes mathematically distinguishable and dividable. On one level, at points where things are located, rates, volumes and other localised measures become visible and calculable. On another level, between these points, times, distances, movements and differences become visible and calculable. The assumption behind treating space in this way, particularly in the geographical tradition, is that it is possible to find spatial patterns in collective human existence; some of its fundamental and underlying ‘geometries’ (Cloke, Philo and Sadler Reference Cloke, Philo and Sadler1991).

Using these understandings and approaches, researchers have been able to trace how older people locate and move differentially across space, for example in the plentiful demographic and migration research focused at global, international (Kinsella and Velkoff Reference Kinsella and Velkoff2001; Knodel Reference Knodel1999; Phillips Reference Phillips2000; World Health Organization (WHO) 1998), national (Law and Warnes Reference Law and Warnes1976; Moore et al. Reference Moore, Rosenberg and McGuiness1997; Warnes and Law Reference Warnes and Law1984) and sub-national (Bartlett and Phillips Reference Bartlett and Phillips1995; Moore and Pacey Reference Moore and Pacey2004; Rosenberg, Moore and Ball Reference Rosenberg, Moore and Ball1989) scales, as well as across these scales (Haberkorn Reference Haberkorn2002; Heleniak Reference Heleniak2003; Moore and Pacey Reference Moore and Pacey2004). Notably, not only are older people themselves mapped across space, so are their characteristics, perhaps the most common being their health status and life expectancy. This, for example, has been done at global (WHO 2002), continental (Warnes Reference Warnes1999) and sub-national (Pickle et al. Reference Pickle, Mungiole, Jones and White1996) scales (the latest manifestation of this type of research being part of the large longitudinal studies on ageing as, for example, currently in progress in the United States of America, Canada, New Zealand, England and other countries). Most recently this research has been joined by studies that map health behaviours, incidences and events in older age groups across space (e.g. Yiannakoulias et al. Reference Yiannakoulias, Rowe, Svenson, Schopflocher, Kelly and Voaklander2003). Together these strands of research help identify areas of particular risks or needs, to which policies and programmes might be targeted.

Often set within specific policy contexts, studies have also considered how resources and services for older people are distributed either by public-sector allocation or by market forces (Cartier Reference Cartier2003; Rosenberg and Everitt Reference Rosenberg and Everitt2001), often in relation to utilisation patterns (see Nemet and Bailey Reference Nemet and Bailey2000). A well-trodden United Kingdom (UK) example is the case of residential care provision at national and sub-national scales (Andrews and Phillips Reference Andrews and Phillips2002; Ford and Smith Reference Ford and Smith1995, Reference Ford and Smith2008; Phillips and Vincent Reference Phillips and Vincent1986, Reference Phillips and Vincent1988; Phillips, Vincent and Blacksell Reference Phillips, Vincent and Blacksell1987; Smith and Ford Reference Smith and Ford1998). The idea underpinning much of this research is that the spatial design of health and social care systems can be improved to better meet the needs of older populations. A utilitarian ethical argument, although often understated and somewhat idealistic, also prevails; that where one lives and ages should not disadvantage one's health, welfare and length of life, and that systems should thus work towards the optimum and most efficient spatial allocations of resources and initiatives for older people (i.e. where supply geographically meets demand).

It would be unfair however to position all of this research as some kind of ‘spatial science’, because treatments of space in gerontology extend far beyond statistical exercises that simply map phenomenon. Indeed, acknowledging the unpredictability of human behaviour, certain research articulates why patterns are not always regular, and/or focuses on the consequences of patterns, and/or attempts to critically understand the individual, social, economic and political processes that underlie them. These approaches can be traced, for example, in many of the aforementioned studies of population ageing (e.g. Bartlett and Phillips Reference Bartlett and Phillips1995; Davies and James Reference Davies and James2011; Moore and Rosenberg Reference Moore and Rosenberg2001; Moore, Rosenberg and McGuiness Reference Moore, Rosenberg and McGuiness1997), the mobility of older people (e.g. Bell and Rees Reference Bell and Rees2006; Blakemore Reference Blakemore1999; Bures Reference Bures1997; Davies and James Reference Davies and James2011; Everitt and Gfellner Reference Everitt and Gfellner1996; Gant Reference Gant1997; Gustafson Reference Gustafson2001; Kreager Reference Kreager2006; Newbold Reference Newbold2008; Sunil, Rojas and Bradley Reference Sunil, Rojas and Bradley2007; Warnes and Williams Reference Warnes and Williams2006) and services for older people (e.g. Andrews and Phillips Reference Andrews and Phillips2002; Rosenberg and Everitt Reference Rosenberg and Everitt2001; Victor Reference Victor1996). More generally, a critical approach is also evident in the way scholars have deconstructed globalisation processes; the involvement of, and consequences for, older people and older populations who either move across space or age in situ (see Harper Reference Harper2006). Moreover, a very specific and focused example of a critical approach that considers the consequences of space is research that builds on studies of the proximity of older people to kin and carers (see Bordone Reference Bordone2009; Lin and Rogerson Reference Lin and Rogerson1995; Rogerson, Burr and Lin Reference Rogerson, Burr and Lin1998; Shelton and Grundy Reference Shelton and Grundy2000), and seeks to understand how the ‘challenge of distance’ impacts on the nature of personal interactions and relationships (Hallman and Joseph Reference Hallman and Joseph1999; Joseph and Hallman Reference Joseph and Hallman1996, Reference Joseph and Hallman1998; Smith Reference Smith1998).

Beyond this, other research has understood space as itself being more dimensional. Recognising space as intimately and actively involved in human agency and identity, scholars have developed the concept of ‘social space’; meaning space as used, experienced and navigated by older people themselves. Although not termed as such, the idea of social space can be traced in early path-breaking research from the psychology tradition on environmental press and adaptation whereby older people, facing physical and mental decline and being increasing challenged by their environment, both reduce their use of space and adjust their relationships to it (Lawton Reference Lawton1980, Reference Lawton1983, Reference Lawton1985; Lawton and Nahemow Reference Lawton, Nahemow, Eisdorfer and Lawton1973). Since these studies, social space has been taken up far more broadly as both a geographical and psychological concept. For example, at one level it now relates to broad built, social and other environmental contexts (such as in rural or urban living), that create particular challenges, opportunities and experiences for older people both in situ and as they move through physical space (Beaulieu, Rowles and Kuder Reference Beaulieu, Rowles and Kuder2001; Coward and Krout Reference Coward and Krout1998; Gesler et al. Reference Gesler, Hartwell, Ricketts, Rosenberg, Gesler, Ricketts and Rosenberg1992; Glasgow Reference Glasgow2000; Kuder, Beaulieu and Rowles Reference Beaulieu, Rowles and Kuder2001; Phillips and Yeh Reference Phillips and Yeh1999; Phillipson and Scharf Reference Phillipson and Scharf2005; Ricketts, Johnson-Webb and Randolph Reference Ricketts, Johnson-Webb, Randolph and Ricketts1999; Skinner, Yantzi and Rosenberg Reference Skinner, Yantzi and Rosenberg2009; Walsh and Gannon Reference Walsh and Gannon2011; Walsh and O'Shea Reference Walsh, O'Shea and Scharf2008). More specifically, social space is also thought of as the collections of settings older people frequent and move between on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, such as their own homes, their friends' homes, family members' homes, retail locations and various formal care environments (see Wiles et al. Reference Wiles, Allen, Palmer, Hayman, Keeling and Kerse2009).

There has been a long-standing research interest in the use of technologies that potentially maintain, re-capture or even extend older peoples' mobility, and consequently social space, including cars (Rosenbloom Reference Rosenbloom2001; Sixsmith and Sixsmith Reference Sixsmith and Sixsmith1993), personal assistive devices and related interventions (Auger et al. Reference Auger, Demers, Gelinas, Miller, Jutai and Noreau2010; Hoenig et al. Reference Hoenig, Pieper, Zolkewitz, Schenkman and Branch2002; Stalvey et al. Reference Stalvey, Owsley, Sloane and Ball1999). Underpinning much of this research is a supposition that reduced social space is one factor that contributes to social isolation and loneliness in older age (themselves important concepts in, and topics of, gerontological research in their own right – see Findlay Reference Findlay2003; Scharf and de Jong Gierveld Reference Scharf and de Jong Gierveld2008; Victor et al. Reference Victor, Scambler, Bond and Bowling2000). Most recently, studies have considered emerging hi/digital technologies and associated systems – such as telemedicine and the internet – which compress time and space to hitherto unprecedented degrees for some older people, leading to what some have termed the ‘death of distance’ as a social and physical barrier, and the creation of ‘virtual social spaces’. Of particular concern is how these emerging technologies impact upon the form, experiences and outcomes of older peoples' interpersonal communications and relationships (Keiko, Takehito and Chiemi Reference Keiko, Takehito and Chiemi1999; Kropf and Grigsby Reference Kropf and Grigsby1999; Milligan, Roberts and Mort Reference Milligan, Roberts and Mort2011; Russell, Campbell and Hughes Reference Russell, Campbell and Hughes2008). Notably, however, research acknowledges that with all the aforementioned technologies, although some users experience substantial benefits, access and successful operation are common obstacles.

Meanwhile, at a more intimate physical scale, social space is about what goes on ‘inside’ individual settings, such health or social care facilities or homes. At one level, the design and functionality of settings is long-standing research consideration (Barnes Reference Barnes2002; Gitlin Reference Gitlin2003; Lawton Reference Lawton1990). In the psychology tradition, design features are often taken to be a ‘determinant of’ behaviour, whilst in the health sciences more generally they are often debated and sometimes measured under the topic of ‘quality of environment’. At another level, how different groups – such as formal carers, informal carers, family and older people – connect to, divide, ‘own’ and contest settings is an emerging critical focus of research (see Andrews et al. Reference Andrews, Holmes, Poland, Leheux, Miller, Pringle and McGilton2005; Dyck et al. Reference Dyck, Kontos, Angus, McKeever and Poland2005). For example, social/organisational psychologists Knight, Haslam and Haslam (Reference Knight, Haslam and Haslam2010) articulate how older people's involvement in the design and planning of space in care facilities enhances their identity with the setting, their social interactions in it, and their general sense of wellbeing. Otherwise, equating social space with ‘personal space’, the very intimate spatial ‘proximities’ between people within settings are considered. Although they are rarely measured, it is recognised that involving ‘feet and inches’, they impact upon other proximities that are conversational, emotional and moral in character (e.g. between nurses and older people at the bedside; Andrews and Peter Reference Andrews and Peter2006; Andrews et al. Reference Andrews, Holmes, Poland, Leheux, Miller, Pringle and McGilton2005). In short, from a humanistic perspective, in many ways the idea of social space has brought abstract space ‘to life’ in gerontology.

Place, so far, in gerontology

Places, of course, feature in a very general sense in much of the aforementioned research and more broadly in gerontology, whether they be, for example, particular named countries, regions, cities or settings (often being important, for example, in terms of identifying localised needs, systems and policies – e.g. Cloutier-Fisher and Joseph Reference Cloutier-Fisher and Joseph2000; Hodge Reference Hodge2008). However, associated with the more humanistic interpretation of space noted above has been an emerging realisation in gerontology that places are much more than co-ordinates, locations or even study sites. Indeed, the understanding has developed that peoples' lives unfold in places that are complex social and cultural ‘fields of action’ that are occupied, acted and deeply felt (Kearns Reference Kearns1993; Kearns and Andrews Reference Kearns, Andrews, Andrews and Phillips2005). At one level, because of people and technologies in situ, places possess basic agency – hospitals provide medicine, theatres entertain, neighbourhoods host a wide range of human activity, and so on. Such agency can be helpful to older people, or act as a barrier or challenge. At another level, however, underlying this basic agency, far more intimate processes are recognised to be at work concerning place experiences, attachments and identities. We elaborate some of these processes and theoretical explanations of them below, acknowledging, however, that they underpin contemporary spatial thought across a range of disciplines, including gerontology, but are rarely explicitly dissected.

There being a mutually constitutive relationship between society and place (Valentine Reference Valentine2001), it is thought that ‘people make places’ and ‘places make people’ (the former proposition being more exclusively a concern of the geographical tradition in gerontology, the latter being common to both the psychology and the geographical traditions). This process of ‘making’ starts with the concept of ‘imbedded knowledge’ which, based on Heidegger's ideas, posits that humans can only relate to and beyond themselves through their situation, their literally ‘being-in-the-world’ and their consciousness of other things in the world (Bender, Andres and Peter Reference Bender, Andrews and Peter2010; Crang Reference Crang1998). It follows then that ‘imbedded knowledge’ can be gained through three forms of encounter with place. One is through ‘immersed direct encounter’, and the fundamental human condition of being bodily and mentally co-present in place (e.g. an older person living in a nursing home). Another is through ‘partial direct encounter’ involving observation at a distance or connections established through forms of technology (e.g. an older person talking to nursing home residents or staff via Skype). Finally, through ‘indirect encounter’ and ideas attained through representations of place filtered and presented by third parties including through word of mouth, art, literature, websites, television and other media (e.g. an older person reading about a nursing home in a magazine). Each form of encounter nevertheless allows the ‘intentionality’ and ‘essences’ of places to be produced, consumed, reacted to and re-produced in an ongoing process.

With regard to ‘intentionality’ (originally discussed by philosopher Edmund Husserl in 1939), it is posited that through human presence, perception and judgement, places themselves are ascribed meaning. From a phenomenological standpoint, just as objects' uses are critical to their meaning (i.e. they are ‘about’ what humans do with them) so are places' uses critical to their meaning (i.e. they are ‘about’ what humans do in them) (Andrews and Crooks Reference Andrews and Crooks2010; Andrews and Shaw Reference Andrews and Shaw2010; Bender, Andrews and Peter Reference Bender, Andrews and Peter2010; Crang Reference Crang1998) which, of course, involves an almost infinite range of possibilities (e.g. to some, nursing homes care, but to others they confine). With regard to ‘essences’, just as objects possess essences (i.e. their facets that influence what humans feel emotionally about them), so do places (i.e. their qualities that influence what humans feel emotionally about and in them) (Andrews and Crooks Reference Andrews and Crooks2010; Andrews and Shaw Reference Andrews and Shaw2010; Bender, Andrews and Peter Reference Bender, Andrews and Peter2010; Crang Reference Crang1998). Humanistic writers explain that intentionality and essences result in individuals feeling a ‘sense of place’ (Kearns Reference Kearns1993; Relph Reference Relph1976; Tuan Reference Tuan1976, 1977), whereby places can evoke an broad range of basic emotions, from the personally positive (e.g. happiness, contentment, excitement) to the personally negative (e.g. anger, fear, loss, sadness) (Andrews and Crooks Reference Andrews and Crooks2010; Andrews and Shaw Reference Andrews and Shaw2010). Moreover, an equally broad range of more specific feelings might be evoked by places, related to general social and spatial categories (e.g. a nursing home that feels warm or welcoming, professional, medical, institutional, etc.). The argument follows that such feelings, when experienced repeatedly or over time, can develop identities and attachments to places. Moreover, in terms of collective qualities, when members of demographic, social and cultural groups – such as older people – share identities, attachments and agency in places (either agreed implicitly/subconsciously or explicitly/consciously), ‘cultures of places’ develop. These are often unique and place-specific, so are almost infinite in terms of possibilities (such as workplace cultures in particular nursing homes, community facilities, etc.).

Wiles (Reference Wiles2005a) summarises how, consistent with these understandings, places have been conceptualised in gerontology in six ways. First, as ‘a process’ and an essential part of social relations – including family life and caring relationships. Second, as subject to ‘ongoing negotiation’ – such as when older people move in or out of place, or their needs change whilst in situ. Third, as fought and contested – such as between the different groups that occupy a home where caring takes place. Fourth, as expressing power relations – such as professional hierarchies in clinical settings, or gender inequalities in unpaid home care. Fifth, as simultaneously physical, social and symbolic – such as nursing homes being subject to design, as social settings, and meaning certain things to society at large. Sixth, as inter-related – such as a home where care takes place, to the neighbourhood in which it is located, the neighbourhood to a city, the city to a region – a final point by Wiles which we will take up in the following discussion of relationality.

Across these six categories, gerontological research has investigated many empirical topics relating to the social production of places of ageing (see e.g. Blaikie Reference Blaikie1997; Pain, Mowl and Talbot Reference Pain, Mowl and Talbot2000; Rowles Reference Rowles2000; Rowles and Ravdal Reference Rowles, Ravdal, Weiss and Bass2002; Rowles and Watkins Reference Rowles, Watkins, Schaie, Wahl, Mollenkopf and Oswald2003). Some common issues considered by studies include the role of places in supporting self-determination and identity in older age (Hockey, Penhale and Sibley Reference Hockey, Penhale and Sibley2001; Kontos Reference Kontos1998; Swenson Reference Swenson1998; Wiles et al. Reference Wiles, Allen, Palmer, Hayman, Keeling and Kerse2009), the personal and other processes behind transnational lifestyles/lifecourses in ageing and caring (Cutchin Reference Cutchin2001; Gustafson Reference Gustafson2001; King, Warnes and Williams Reference King, Warnes and Williams2000; McHugh and Mings Reference McHugh and Mings1996; Walsh and O'Shea Reference Walsh and O'Shea2010). Others have addressed the nature and challenges of urbanicity and ageing (Laws Reference Laws1993; Phillipson and Scharf Reference Phillipson and Scharf2005; Scharf and de Jong Gierveld Reference Scharf and de Jong Gierveld2008; Smith Reference Smith2009; Teo Reference Teo1997; Walsh and Gannon Reference Walsh and Gannon2011) and of rurality and ageing (Bryant and Joseph Reference Bryant and Joseph2001; Chalmers and Joseph Reference Chalmers and Joseph1998; Hanlon and Halseth Reference Hanlon and Halseth2005; Phillipson and Scharf Reference Phillipson and Scharf2005; Walsh and O'Shea Reference Walsh and O'Shea2008), particularly in relation to social isolation and social exclusion (Walsh, O'Shea and Scharf Reference Walsh, O'Shea and Scharf2012). Further avenues of research include the dynamics between place and experiences and practices of life and/or caring, particularly homes and other community settings as less ‘visible’, more isolated venues (Cutchin Reference Cutchin and Williams2007; Martin et al. Reference Martin, Nancarrow, Parker, Phelps and Regen2005; Milligan Reference Milligan2000, Reference Milligan2003, Reference Milligan2005, Reference Milligan2009; Mowl, Pain and Talbot Reference Mowl, Pain and Talbot2005; Skinner and Joseph Reference Skinner and Joseph2011; Skinner, Yantzi and Rosenberg Reference Skinner, Yantzi and Rosenberg2009; Wiles Reference Wiles2003b, Reference Wiles, Andrews and Phillips2005b). Given the obvious conceptual alignment, unsurprisingly attention has also been paid to the nature of place in ‘place-based policy’, particularly the concept of Age Friendly Cities (Lui et al. Reference Lui, Everingham, Warburton, Cuthill and Bartlett2009; Plouffe and Kalache Reference Plouffe and Kalache2010) and the underlying objective of Ageing-in-Place (Brittain et al. Reference Brittain, Corner, Robinson and Bond2010; Cutchin Reference Cutchin2003; Gilleard, Hyde and Higgs Reference Gilleard, Hyde and Higgs2007; Johansson, Josephsson and Lilja Reference Johansson, Josephsson and Lilja2009; Rosel Reference Rosel2003; Wiles et al. Reference Wiles, Leibing, Guberman, Reeve and Allen2012a). Notably here, attention has been focused on interpretations of place by various parties, and how place is part of an administrative and political approach. Meanwhile, reflecting the emergence of critical/cultural gerontology in recent years, research has sought to challenge stereotypes that connect older people solely to ‘sick’ and ‘sad’ places (see McHugh Reference McHugh2003) and instead examine how and why certain places are associated with independence, resilience and wellbeing in older age. These include, for example, ‘unremarkable’ places routinely passed through in daily life, and specialist places associated with active lifestyles and emerging consumer cultures in ageing (Grenier Reference Grenier2005; Katz and McHugh Reference Katz, McHugh, Cole, Ray and Kastenbaum2010; Laws Reference Laws1995; Mansvelt Reference Mansvelt1997; McHugh Reference McHugh2000; McHugh and Larson-Keagy Reference McHugh and Larson-Keagy2005; Wiles et al. Reference Wiles, Wild, Kerse and Allen2012b). Finally, in gerontological teaching, and its pedagogical research, place is a key component of experiential education often involving community ‘placements’ that expose students to ageing environments, familiarise them with services and older people and, in the most critical of scenarios, challenge the relationship between the ‘knower’ (student) and ‘the known’ (older person) (Fisher and Finkelstein Reference Fisher and Finkelstein1999; Hess Brown and Roodin Reference Hess Brown and Roodin2001; Rosenthal-Gelman Reference Rosenthal-Gelman2012).

Towards relationality

As we mentioned earlier, one criticism of the aforementioned understandings of space and place is that, although they recognise their rich and complex composition, they generally portray them as somewhat discrete and static. ‘Space’ tends to be conceptualised as an isolated area (such as a block of census tracts), and ‘place’ as a fixed, parochial centre of meaning resulting from social inscription (such as a house, village, city or retirement community), whilst little attention is paid to relationships that might exist with other spaces and places. In response to this limitation, simply put, ‘thinking space and place relationally’ implies a twist in how space and place are theorised. Retaining but extending many of the aforementioned understandings, relational thinking evokes an image of spaces and places emerging not only in situ, but also through their connections within networks of ‘translocal interactions’. In other words, spaces and places are highly related to, and produced by, many other spaces and places at multiple scales. Relational thinking thus complicates the conventional assumption that there exist ‘intrinsic’ qualities of single spaces (e.g. with regard to distance and proximity) and single places (e.g. with regard to meaning) that impact on, and reflect, people's lives.

Relational ideas such as these emerged in human geography as part of a broader ‘relational turn’ in the social sciences. So whilst relational debates in sociology, for example, have centred on individuals, groups and organisations (and such ideas as ‘networked interaction’ and ‘simultaneous invention’; Crossley Reference Crossley2011; Donati Reference Donati2011), in human geography, given its particular conceptual focus, relationality centres foremost on spaces and places as networked and performed articulations of social relations (Darling Reference Darling2009). The first shoots of such relational thinking emerged in theorisation of globalisation and the connections it implies between international and local scales (see Massey Reference Massey1991). Extending these ideas, however, relational accounts in the discipline quickly began to consider the interconnection and interdependence of geographical scales with respect to a broad range of economic, social and cultural features and processes (Jones Reference Jones2009). Indeed, ‘thinking space relationally’ fast became the new mantra of human geography (Jones Reference Jones2009), to the extent that the relational turn has now reached almost paradigmatic proportions in the discipline (Bathelt and Gluckler Reference Bathelt and Gluckler2003).

Notably, relational accounts also lay emphasis on temporality as they consider spaces and places to be ever developing and changing over time (Massey Reference Massey2005). Indeed, as ‘bundles of interrelations’, spaces and places are considered only temporary accomplishments which are forever ‘coming into being’. As Darling notes:

Thus, as Jones (Reference Jones2009) suggests, the research agenda for relational thinkers consequently centres upon ideas and theories of space and place that portray them as encountered, performed and fluid (such an understanding of relationality, as we shall see, is highly connected to ideas about affect considered later). Various aspects of relationality are usefully explained by the summary table of Cummins et al. (Reference Cummins, Curtis, Diez-Roux and Macintyre2007: 1827) of conventional versus relational views of space and place, and the assumptions that change between them (Table 1).

Table 1. Adapted from the summary of conventional versus relational space and place in Cummins et al. (Reference Cummins, Curtis, Diez-Roux and Macintyre2007: 1827)

Recently attention has been paid in research to how relations between spaces and places might be held together, and whether these relations depend upon some external forces or logic to maintain their consistency or coherence. Although these questions have not been fully debated or answered, one emerging view is that, in many circumstances, ‘power’ might be one force in political, economic, institutional and socio-cultural forms (Massey Reference Massey2004). Another not necessarily competing view, associated with the ideas about places discussed earlier, emphasises the role of the individual (self), and emotions in the relational process (see Conradson Reference Conradson2005; Davidson, Bondi and Smith Reference Davidson, Bondi and Smith2005). Here, one idea is that when individuals perceive places – their essences and intentionality – relationality also emerges in terms of comparisons they might make consciously or subconsciously with other places they have previously experienced or know as social categories.

It would be unfair, however, to claim that relational thinking has been completely absent in geographical and environmental gerontology. There has, for example, been some attention recently to ‘age-relationality’ (see Andrews et al. Reference Andrews, Kearns, Kontos and Wilson2006; Hopkins and Pain Reference Hopkins and Pain2007), although this is more about researching intergenerationality and lifecourses, as played out in space and place, than studying relational spaces and places in older age (acknowledging that they might be closely connected). However, perhaps the first ‘signpost’ towards thinking space and place relationally has come in the form of studies that consider the ‘inter-relatedness’ of place (see Wiles Reference Wiles2005a). As a tradition this emerged over three decades ago, for example in Rowles’ (Reference Rowles1978, Reference Rowles1981) early geographical work on ageing and attachment to place and his concept of the ‘surveillance zone’. Here the home is seen as a base that facilitates the process of monitoring events outside, houses the emergence of watchful reciprocal social networks, and provides the foundation to a sense of personal identity. Moreover, the ‘inter-relatedness’ of place is also evident in early psychology studies in the 1980s that emphasise how older people cognitively ‘let go’ and develop ‘belonging to’ successive living environments as they age and move through them, connecting one to the other in their thoughts and actions (see Wahl and Oswald Reference Wahl, Oswald, Dannefer and Phillipson2010). More recently, research demonstrating the ‘inter-relatedness’ of place has continued in the form of diverse studies that articulate the multiple and connected places and scales of residence and care-giving (Milligan and Wiles Reference Milligan and Wiles2010; Wiles Reference Wiles2003a; Wiles et al. Reference Wiles, Wild, Kerse and Allen2012b), the superimposition of ‘external’ medical and ‘normal’ domestic fields as part of formal home care in homes (Angus et al. Reference Angus, Kontos, Dyck, McKeever and Poland2005; Dyck et al. Reference Dyck, Kontos, Angus, McKeever and Poland2005), the mobility of older people and attachment to places connected throughout their lifecourse (Gustafson Reference Gustafson2001; McHugh and Mings Reference McHugh and Mings1996) and on ageing-in-place and attachment to ‘home’, in various forms and interconnected scales. Of this latter category, Peace, Holland and Kellaher's (Reference Peace, Holland and Kellaher2006) work on the home space, for example, emphasises that ‘living spaces’ include the dwelling itself, its setting, and the spaces that connect and separate inside and outside; private and public. Likewise, Wiles et al. (Reference Wiles, Allen, Palmer, Hayman, Keeling and Kerse2009) illustrates older people's elastic physical, imaginative, emotional and symbolic experiences of, and connections to, place across time and in scope, including the home, neighbourhood and ‘beyond’ spaces (see also Rosel Reference Rosel2003).

Although valuable insights are provided, the majority of this research describing the ‘inter-relatedness’ of places is not, however, theorised as explicitly relational. In other words, it does not always ‘tell the whole relational story’. Indeed, telling the whole story involves the prime focus of studies being on the finer details of the relations themselves (e.g. rather than ‘pointing out’ the existence of’ relations existing between places a, b and c, ‘describing richly the nature of’ the relations between places a, b and c). To date, the only explicit attention to moving beyond inter-relatedness is given by Cutchin (Reference Cutchin2005) who briefly advocated for a relational approach to more firmly theorise the non-dualistic relationships between older people and place.

Towards affect

Attention has also been paid in human geography to how space and place are (re)produced relationally in the moment. How the world is known and rendered meaningful through the body's sensorial capacities prior to cognitive reflection. Here the idea of ‘affect’ – borrowed and developed from social theory (see Deleuze Reference Deleuze1988, Reference Deleuze1995; Deleuze and Guattari Reference Deleuze and Guattari2004a, Reference Deleuze and Guattari2004b), has proved particularly insightful to scholars. Simply put, in terms of an experience, affect is a vague but intense ‘atmosphere’ – some have described it as a ‘passion’, ‘momentum’ or an ‘energy’ – present in places (Simpson Reference Simpson2010). It is registered by participants in an instant. They, in contrast to many of the aforementioned human relationships to space and place, have insufficient time to compartmentalise or rationalise what they are observing and fix it to established social categories (McCormack Reference McCormack2008; Simpson Reference Simpson2010). Hence, it is a somatically registered, pre-deep cognition, ‘feeling state’. A view of literally everything occurring at once; ‘hybrid assemblages’ composed of ‘human bodies’, (people) and ‘more-than-human objects’ (ranging from biological phenomenon to practical items).

Affect is a relational encounter in two ways. First, in terms of structure and composition, space and place are constituted through the relationalities between bodies and objects, their positions, distances, movements, interactions. Second, space and place are relational in the sense that affect is relational to each individual feeling body; it envelops their unique physical positions and henceforth informs their cognitive vantage point (see Conradson Reference Conradson2005; Simpson Reference Simpson2010; Thien Reference Thien2005). With regard to interaction and process, a feedback loop occurs, signifying the rapid energy, force and momentum of affect. Participants witness affect, quickly internalise it, and react to it (such reactions might be obvious or very subtle, such as eye movements). In turn, their reactions become affective to others – contributing to the ongoing affect (Anderson Reference Anderson2006; Conradson Reference Conradson, Davidson, Bondi and Smith2007; Conradson and Latham Reference Conradson and Latham2007; McCormack Reference McCormack2008; Thrift Reference Thrift2004).

Although the concept of affect is undoubtedly complex, it helps academics understand further how spaces and places are transpersonal, transhuman and performative (Pile Reference Pile2010; Thien Reference Thien2005; Woodward and Lea Reference Woodward, Lea, J., Marston and Jones2010), and how every space and place is constantly ‘becoming’ in the moment (Thrift Reference Thrift2007; Woodward and Lea Reference Woodward, Lea, J., Marston and Jones2010). Moreover, as Nigel Thrift sees it, affect shows us that ‘sameness’ (i.e. social categories – such as being older, black or white) does not always have to be about common identities (firmly established in places). It shows us that a form of solidarity also arises immediately between people through their parts in shifting spatial positioning (Thrift Reference Thrift2010).

Notably affect is a central idea and important concept in a more general shift towards ‘non-representational theory’ in human geography (see Lorimar Reference Lorimer2005, Reference Lorimer2008; Thrift Reference Thrift2007). Initially developed by Nigel Thrift (see Thrift Reference Thrift, Pile and Keith1997) – albeit building on a much longer philosophical heritage – non-representational theory is based on the observation that most existing social science research, regardless of the methods used or theoretical basis, falls under a ‘representational’ paradigm. This paradigm, although often focused on human practice, ‘kills off’ the active world in empirical research. In other words, a good part of what is actually happening in space and time is lost in theoretically driven interpretative searches for meaning and significance (Cadman Reference Cadman, Kitchen and Thrift2009). Non-representational theory is thus not actually a theory itself, in that it seeks to explain any one thing, rather it is a principle and approach that seeks to bring attention to these details (Cadman Reference Cadman, Kitchen and Thrift2009). As Cadman (Reference Cadman, Kitchen and Thrift2009) explains, the core concerns of non-representational theory are the responsiveness, expressiveness and rhythms of human practice, the mundane and everyday in life, performativity and embodiment (including senses and expressions) and virtuality (i.e. broad understandings of space and time – such as the ‘real’ yet non-physical). A comment from Lorimer usefully sums up the approach, which is increasingly influential:

Thus, as one can see, non-representational theory and the idea of affect are aligned in many ways to current research developments in critical gerontology that seek to emphasise embodiment in lay and everyday knowledge and action (see e.g. Kontos Reference Kontos2004; Kontos and Naglie Reference Kontos and Naglie2009) – arguably extending these to emphasise how they are performed in, and make, space and place.

The following three vignettes illustrate practically how relational and affective spaces and places constitute, and impact on, older people's lives. Indeed, the vignettes illuminate some of the theoretical points raised so far, so that they might become less abstract to readers who might then in turn relate them to their own spheres of interest. Although the first two vignettes are ‘fictional’, in the sense that some of the people and events in them do not exist, they are still highly reflective of situations and circumstances the authors have encountered in their research to date (thus, not being at all fanciful or unrealistic, they should be familiar and helpful to readers). In terms of scope, the examples of ‘a person’, ‘a service’ and ‘a policy’ also showcase connections to different empirical fields and types of gerontological research.

Case One: Doris Smyth's networked life

Doris Smyth moved to New Zealand with her two small children and husband from the UK in the late 1950s. Doris (now aged 87) has remained in the first neighbourhood she moved to, where she has a well-established network of friends and relatives, and many happy memories. Indeed, Doris has enjoyed watching her own two children and subsequent generations grow up in an area that has gradually changed from a relatively new ‘nappy neighbourhood’ to a well-established and cosmopolitan tree-lined area.

Doris' husband died in the early 1990s, but her two children are in regular contact with their mother, as are two of her five grandchildren. Her son, Paul, lives in a nearby town, about an hour's drive away. He visits once or twice a month and helps Doris with her garden and any house repairs. He often brings supplies when he comes; stumbling, crashing and banging through the door, breathing hard with heavy bags and tools in hand. Doris' daughter Elizabeth lives back in Europe; however she is in very regular and intimate contact with her mother, calling two or three times a week for long conversations. For these Doris sits in the kitchen, where the two share so many memories. Doris also has a niece, Sharon, her sister's oldest daughter, who lives about three blocks away. Sharon visits almost daily on her late afternoon walk after work, popping in for a quick chat and sometimes a cup of tea. As Doris said, ‘Sharon is like a great tonic, always so lively, bursting with energy and enthusiasm, always with a big smile on her face’. Since her husband died Doris has made a conscious effort to maintain a network of family and friends, in the early days making sure she invited at least one person each week to share a meal, for example. Many of these visitors bring with them a small gift, often food such as a fish or some garden produce. Doris also has an arrangement with her long-term neighbours, Jim and Vera, who check to see her curtains are opened by a certain time each morning; if not they would investigate to see whether she is alright. Doris has remained fit and active into her older age. Until recently, she walked up the road and around the corner to the local shops each day. Ostensibly this walk would be to buy a few items of grocery, but equally importantly along the way Doris would greet and perhaps converse briefly with various neighbours on porches or in gardens, children and parents playing at the park, and the taxi drivers waiting at the local cab rank. Along the way she habitually observed seasonal and other changes in various front lawns and gardens, watched the birds bicker or flirt with each other, admired various plants (and sometimes surreptitiously snipped a few cuttings for her own garden), and observed the varying standards to which different neighbours kept their plots. These were often topics of conversation with her niece.

Several weeks ago, Doris tripped over a loose floor mat at home, falling and fracturing her hip. After a short stay in hospital and then some weeks in a rehabilitation facility, she has just returned home and is receiving formal help with dressing and bathing and some housework, along with meal preparation. Though her niece Sharon took time off work to be present when the care manager came to visit to assess Doris' needs and resources, her daughter Elizabeth has been the person in contact with the care agency and in particular with the care manager. Doris was initially reluctant to have a stranger come into her home, and tried to put on a brave face when the assessor came to visit, ‘all official looking – wearing a suit, holding a notepad and standing very upright’. However, as a result of the assessment Doris was assigned a personal carer, who is allocated to be with her up to two hours a day during weekdays and assist with bathing and dressing as well as some meal preparation. Both Sharon and Elizabeth believe Doris needs much more than ten hours assistance per week. Strict eligibility criteria, agency rules and budget cuts also mean the personal carer is no longer able to do any more than the very lightest of housework.

Three weeks ago, Doris' personal carer, Marcella, newly employed at the agency on a temporary contract, arrived on the doorstep. Marcella was a registered nurse in the Philippines though, as an immigrant, her nursing qualifications are not recognised. After some initial trepidation on both sides, they have begun to establish a warm and friendly relationship. Marcella is interested in Doris' stories about her neighbourhood and her family, and as she works she encourages her to talk about the various photos and things so prominently displayed in the living room and kitchen. She has also begun to tell Doris about her own son and daughter, still at home in the Philippines, and how she is proud of their achievements but also worried about problems her son is having with bullying at school. When these conversations occur, the room seems to change subtly both for Doris and Marcella as each object from another time and place is described, taken in and passed between the two in deep conversation. Indeed, Doris wrote in her diary: ‘I like the times when we open up. A room full of photos suddenly livens up when you can take them down, pass them round and get energetic telling the stories behind them. I better be careful not to overdo it. I started re-enacting an old dance yesterday, well very slowly!’

Ignoring the agency rules, Marcella does help with the vacuuming and dusting as this was particularly bothering Doris, and recognising Doris' interests they have established a goal of walking together to the shops. So far they have achieved the front gate, every day they aim to walk a little further, using the trees along the sidewalk as measuring posts. Two days ago the agency threatened to terminate Marcella's contract; she is not a member of a union and has little recourse to support. Marcella and Doris are both very worried about what this will mean …

We argue that this case study is illustrative of the highly permeable, networked and affective nature of space and place and suggests numerous avenues for research. Doris' experience of her home context is made of multiple relationalities and connected to a wide variety of people, places and scales. Doris, being brought up in the UK at the time of the early development of the welfare state, has definite expectations on the care society and the state should provide. She hopes that these expectations can be met in another country, even though it has been her home for many years. Now, being ‘at home’ for Doris certainly means being in the physical house where she has lived for a long time, especially because it is filled with assemblages of people and things reminding her of her life there, each of which represents and generates intangible moments, emotions and memories. But it also means being in an immediate and wider neighbourhood, where she has a wide array of social and emotional connections from supportive but non-intrusive neighbours to the friendly staff at the grocery store. Being ‘at home’ means being connected not only to people but to particular physical spaces both within the house and beyond it, as they change throughout seasons or from one part of the day to another; a neighbour's pretty garden, the seat where she rests and takes in the seasonally changing view across the pond at the park. Moreover, her experience of home is very much affected by events and processes at the regional, national and even international level. For example, Marcella is typical of the increasing number of skilled and unskilled migrants employed in care-related occupations (and the problems of defining ‘skill’), attendant with the problems of recognising qualifications and the social and emotional connectivity of migrants. The tenuousness of her employment is also typical of the difficulties in working conditions for carers employed outside institutional spaces; and the high turnover of such employees has implications for continuity of care. The increasingly restrictive budgets of care service providers and the response of tightening eligibility criteria operates at regional, national and even international scales, but has significant implications at the level of the home and the body. Thus, care itself takes place in a landscape of care, or complex social, embodied and organisational spatialities that emerge from and through relationships of care (Milligan and Wiles Reference Milligan and Wiles2010).

It is equally important to note, however, that care is not uni-directional, nor limited to particular scales of space or time. Prior to her crisis, Doris was already at the centre of a strong network of support, some of which is immediately proximate, some of which is stretched out right around the world. Just because her daughter lives several thousand miles away does not mean she is not as (or even more) intimately involved in caring for her mother as her brother or cousin. Care can be provided unobtrusively, by kin and non-kin, and is sometimes a matter of what is not done or said (thus supporting a sense of autonomy) as much as what is done. Doris herself has provided much care over time, and continues to reciprocate and provide care in subtle ways to members of her own support network. This network of care does place burden and some strains on those involved; it is also rewarding to them in a wide variety of ways.

Research that recognises these relationalities and affects would focus explicitly and sensitively on them, and how networks through time and space effectively make older people's lives. Although we know through existing research that clients and carers are not homogeneous groups, but are diverse with complex lives, it would demonstrate how this diversity and richness comes from multiple times and places, converging at points of study.

Case Two: ‘Natural Life’: an holistic health centre for older people

Natural Life is a privately operated holistic health centre associated with a General Practice that is located on the same premises. It opened in 1995, after many of the general practitioners (GPs) realised that their clients were requesting treatment of chronic conditions for which conventional medicine was not well-suited. The small British coastal town within which Natural Life is located is a popular retirement destination, leading to a high proportion of clients aged over 65. Moreover, it is a nationally known ancient ‘spiritual landscape’ which is part of the attraction for many residents, old and young (see Andrews Reference Andrews2003).

Since these early days Natural Life has expanded considerably. Originally housing just two part-time therapists who practised reflexology and massage, the business is now home to ten full-time therapists offering a more extensive range of therapies including chiropractic, homeopathy, life coaching and counselling, Chinese medicine, hypnotherapy, herbal medicine, music therapy and acupuncture. Seven of the therapists have lived locally all of their lives, and were trained at a local college. One therapist, Mr Anderton, is self-taught. His modality, healing touch, does not have a formal educational base. Another therapist, Dr Chen, learned to practise Chinese medicine whilst a younger man living in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, another therapist, Ms Ogude, learned traditional herbal medicine as a younger woman in Nigeria, where she used to live. The therapists have taken great time and effort to distinguish their practice setting from the sister GP practice. In their section of the building they retain some medical aspects of its design and decoration, but have also included many features that give it more of a spiritual feel including ambient music and lighting in the waiting room, a warm earthy colour scheme, and pictures and photographs showing humans at one with landscapes and nature (reflecting the associations many therapies have to the environment and the natural world). Each therapist, however, has their own practice space, which they design and decorate to their own taste, mixing different features, some familiar to medical environments (such as charts) and others more unconventional. Of the latter, it is quite typical for therapists to display artefacts and objects associated with their specific therapeutic disciplines (such as ornamental herb pots, massage blankets), particularly those they have collected whilst travelling or living abroad. Because of these design features, it is quite obvious to anyone entering these practice spaces what they are about. They literally ‘feel them’ as they step out of their regular day, the bustling streets and their schedule, into a warmer, slower more relaxed and spiritual world of holistic therapy. In some cases, the clients' therapeutic experiences even extend beyond the physical domain whereby in certain therapies – such as counselling and hypnotherapy – visualisation is used, and clients are mentally taken to other places (some fictional, some real) for various therapeutic ends (such as self-understanding or basic distraction). A therapist once commented on her approach: ‘I ask them to remember where they grew up and describe the details; the garden, its gate, the fence, the flowers and trees, the size, shape and colour of the building. Then the time of day, the weather, and their thoughts and physical and mental feelings as they slowly walk up the garden path and enter the front door’.

As a group, the therapists decided to actively market their practice as a place of importance to older people and particularly the types of musculoskeletal and emotional conditions from which they often suffer. Focusing on one specific age group also means that they can target older people from outside the immediate town and local area. It is a business model that has shown great success, leading to over half of the total care being provided for over sixty-fives. Reflecting the emphasis on older people, the practice is designed with ease of accessibility and movement very much in mind, with ramps, clear signage, non-slip surfaces, lifts and handrails commonplace throughout the facility. Moreover, during the past year the therapists have launched a home-visiting outreach service offering a limited number of therapies at a modest additional cost to older people who are too frail or lack adequate transportation to visit the main clinic. The clients aged over 65 are a diverse group. They include people who have lived locally all of their lives. These are often ‘the oldest old’ with ideas on self-care and family care that pre-date socialised national health care (they are also more likely to use the home-visiting service). Clients, however, also include recently retired migrants to the area, affluent younger baby-boomers originating from urban areas with very definite and high expectations regarding their health and health care. For many of these clients, holistic medicine is just as much a lifestyle choice as a form of medicine. Interestingly, Edna, a client of Natural Life, was asked about her use of therapies in a local television documentary. Her response provides insights into a range of experiences. She commented:

Edna continued elaborating on the subject of energy, talking about the impact on her daily life:

The example of Natural Life illustrates the highly permeable and networked nature of space and place in relation to a specific type of service. In particular, the interconnectedness and interdependence of global space and practice space, the latter of which hosts the immediate affective event of holistic therapy. Clearly the therapies, therapists and clients have all travelled and transitioned to some extent from other times and places (whether it be from another continent, county, region or town). Each brings something of that past time and place to the practice, whether that be a way of doing something (e.g. an idea, concept or theory), a physical object or artefact (e.g. a herb) or even a personal expectation. Practice spaces, where all of this unfolds, are equally variable, ranging in scale and variety from general locality and town (in this case a spiritual landscape) to the therapists' rooms and clients' own homes. Wherever practice occurs it involves assemblages of human bodies and minds (therapists, clients), objects (design, decoration, therapists' tools), and the relationships between them. These create affective experiences that form the basis of events that are relaxing, spiritual, warm, comforting and therapeutic. These are not general categories, but are relational and unique to each and every individual experiencing them. Moreover, affects also arise beyond practice spaces. One example, as noted above, is how therapies extend into clients' everyday lives, in the best of situations making them more capable and energetic throughout the day. Another example, also noted above, is through the use of imagination and visualisation of places that clients, for example, might know from their pasts or, along with therapists, purposefully create (see Andrews and Shaw Reference Andrews and Shaw2010).

In terms of research, the example of Natural Life illustrates the need to look beyond the traditional geographical boundaries of a service, whether this is the market area, or the walls of an institution or even a home. Many people, materials and ideas are involved – all part of the composition and performativity of practice.

Case Three: ageing in Edmonton, Canada: developing a vision for an ‘age-friendly city’

As the populations of countries have aged, age-friendly approaches to urban design and service planning/delivery have become a central focus of attention. This is perhaps best exemplified by the WHO's recent Age-Friendly Cities concept. Rooted in the notion of active-aging, an age-friendly city is one that optimises ‘opportunities for health, participation and security in order to enhance quality of life as people age’ and ‘adapts its structures and services to be accessible to and inclusive of older people with varying needs and capacities’ (WHO 2007a: 1). In an effort to promote the development and implementation of age-friendly policies, WHO has developed a number of resources for cities including the Global Age-friendly Cities: A Guide (WHO 2007a) and the Checklist of Essential Features of Age-friendly Cities (WHO 2007b). Both are products of focus groups held with older persons and care-givers in 33 cities in both developed and less-developed countries (see Plouffe and Kalache Reference Plouffe and Kalache2010). Together these documents identify features of age-friendly cities across eight domains of urban life: outdoor spaces and buildings; transportation; housing; social participation; respect and social inclusion; civic participation and employment; communication and information; and community support and health services.

Edmonton, Canada is just one of many cities, scattered around the world, that have embraced the WHO framework in an attempt to become an ‘age-friendly city’. In early 2010 the city launched two ageing-in-place demonstration projects. Later in December of that year Edmonton became the fourth city in Canada to be accepted into the WHO Global Network of Age-friendly Cities. Since then, the city has drawn upon WHO guidelines to devise a strategic action plan entitled ‘Vision for an Age-friendly Edmonton’ (2011). This plan emerged out of consultations with thousands of residents who were asked to reflect upon the eight key areas identified by the WHO. These reflections were translated into specific goals and actions for improving the lives of Edmonton seniors and strengthening the communities in which they live (Edmonton Seniors Coordinating Council 2011).

This example illustrates how urban policies affecting the lives of a growing number of older persons living in urban areas need to be understood in a broader relational context insofar as they are no longer simply local manifestations; rather, they draw upon policy models developed in other parts of the world (see McCann and Ward Reference McCann and Ward2011). Urban policy mobilities (McCann Reference McCann2010) such as these are constituted by distanciated flows of policy knowledge circulating through networks (such as the WHO Global Network of Age-friendly Cities), and are embedded through processes of local experimentation and implementation (such those being carried out in Edmonton, Alberta). Thus the concept of ‘age-friendly cities’ is simultaneously global and local in this regard. By extension, cities such as Edmonton and the many spaces and places established through age-friendly initiatives (e.g. outdoor spaces and buildings, housing, community support and health services) can themselves be understood as nodes in an evolving network of other comparable sites around the world. At a micro level, the many materials and objects associated with age-friendly initiatives (such as walkways, ramps, hand rails – many of which with design and financial links at international and global scales) act, along with humans, to produce particular affects. Notably, Greg, a local resident of Edmonton (fictional for this paper) was asked by a local radio station about what he would like to occur under the age-friendly initiative. His comments prove insightful:

In terms of policy-relevant research, this example demonstrates the need to consider the relationalities that constitute the discourses and practices of ‘age-friendly’ policies and other policies that impact the lives of older persons. This includes the way in which policy knowledge is mobilised via translocal connections with other cities and institutions scattered around the world. These local–global policy strategies have implications when it comes to the future trajectories of spaces and places for ageing. The significant role of global institutions such as the WHO, the speed and ease at which information can travel, and the growing authority of ‘best practices’ and ‘benchmarking’ means that policy analysis could benefit from a trans-local and transnational lens. Such a lens would allow analysts to not only determine if globalised policy discourses are contributing to a convergence of age-related policy across different territorial jurisdictions, but also explain divergences and properly contextualise their impacts. Meanwhile, paying attention to affect potentially provides valuable insights as to how cities and neighbourhoods are lived in by older people with others on an everyday basis. In other words, how they are practiced in the moment in everyday life. This is really where ‘the rubber meets the road’, where you can see needs arise, policies and initiatives working or not working, where subtleties and intricacies can be observed and reported.

Further considerations

By arguing for a relational approach to space and place and an associated focus on affect, we are certainly not suggesting that all other approaches or understandings are in some way obsolete or of less value. We suggest that focusing explicitly on these things might be useful in answering certain research questions, or in formulating new questions. Indeed in many cases, as suggested earlier, this might only take a ‘tweak’ and slight adjustment in thinking and how a particular study is undertaken. Our view is that, as a result of recognising relationalities and affects, in a discipline like gerontology where policy and care are often important considerations, recommendations to these areas might be supported by richer and more diverse evidence sensitive to everyday lives and practices. Nevertheless, as we said from the outset, beyond the literary background and practical illustrations provided in this paper, much more needs to be considered with regard to these approaches in gerontology. Indeed, the many remaining questions, and thus the immediate agenda for scholars, falls under three categories.

First are questions relating to disciplines and theory. For example, what are the different consequences of focusing on relationality and affects for psychology-based environmental gerontology as opposed to geography-based geographical gerontology (where the former, being a behavioural science, is often searching for ‘big’ explanatory theories, and the latter, increasingly post-structuralist, is not)? What are the relationships between the spatial understandings of relationality and affects we have described in this paper, emerging sociological understandings of relationality (such as lifecourse and inter-generationality), and psychological/psychiatric understandings of relationality (such as the ‘relational self’), and how might they be combined in the study of older people? Here, one potential answer/direction might lie in developing common critical relational approaches and understandings across disciplines. Indeed, as Hopkins and Dixon (Reference Hopkins and Dixon2006) suggest, a critical approach might help develop alternative perspectives on space and place in which there is increased attention to the social processes and practices through which people's senses of themselves and place are constructed. Moreover, as part of a critical approach, specific theories could cross-cut disciplines and help lead to more highly developed common understandings. One pertinent example is Actor Network Theory (ANT), which is certainly compatible with the idea of affect and part of a potential ‘toolkit’ for working within the non-representational paradigm more generally. Indeed, ANT encompasses a radically different understanding of the world as something that is enacted into being through heterogeneous networks of human and non-human entities that mutually constitute each other and are equally capable of agency (see Cutchin Reference Cutchin2005). Specifically, ANT potentially helps inform the understanding of a relational environment by departing from conventional Euclidean understandings of space. Rather than conceiving of environments on an objective plane where distance between points can be measured, or in reference to scale (i.e. micro–meso–macro), ANT approaches the world through a ‘flat ontology’ (see Marston, Jones and Woodward Reference Marston, Jones and Woodward2005) where space does not exist apart from the human and non-human entities that make it up. Indeed, as Jones (Reference Jones2009: 491) describes it, ‘objects are space, space is objects, and moreover objects can be understood only in relation to other objects’. This is but one idea that, along with others, needs to be far more thoroughly investigated beyond the current paper.

Second, following from this, inevitable questions arise regarding research design and methodology. For example, what methods are best suited to unpack relationality and affects in particular circumstances (qualitative, quantitative or combinations)? Are different methods required to unpack relationality as opposed to affect? What models and frameworks might help inform and structure research studies? Although it is easy to simply align quantitative methods with research at macro-scales and qualitative methods with research at micro-scales, more imagination and innovation is required when employing multiple methods to capture relational situations through space and time, and the perspectives of multiple groups. Indeed, as Cadman (Reference Cadman, Kitchen and Thrift2009) explains, methods are required – particularly with regard to affect – that describe and relay what is ‘out there’ happening in space and time, rather than diagnose and re-represent what has happened. This involves modifications in the conduct of existing methods (such as surveys, interviewing and focus groups) and also the development of new hybrid methodological categories (such as ‘observant participation’ and ‘performative ethnography’) that acknowledge particularly that the research encounter creates, not just bias, but something new (Cadman Reference Cadman, Kitchen and Thrift2009), and present findings in a style that is infused with a fidelity or authenticity to the subject, relaying as much as possible of its true character and movement (Patchett Reference Patchett2010).

Third are questions regarding traditions in gerontology. For example, how does relationality and affect potentially map on to many of the established concepts and debates in gerontology (such as ‘resilience’, ‘empowerment’, ‘active ageing’, ‘successful ageing’, ‘continuity of care’ and others) and what might they contribute to each? How might relationality and affect be considered in gerontological education (such as field ‘place'ments) and its supporting research? How might they be handled and used by different theoretical paradigms in gerontology (including positivist, political economy, critical/post-modernist and others)? In short, how can the thinking we espouse be useful in the long term for gerontology and not be just a passing fashion or fad? These are wide-ranging questions that can only be addressed by scholars representing the full empirical and theoretical breadth of gerontology and moreover, scholars willing to think out of the box and work beyond their usual comfort zones; a clinical gerontologist beyond the clinical, a social gerontologist beyond the social, and so on. We invite other scholars to consider these issues further, as will we.