An ‘age-regation’ process as theoretical understanding of the gated retirement village

Abstract

English: Gating the elderly appears to be a common and inevitable part of international urban life. In our study we have used the structure-agency relationship to identify and analyse the salient elements of the process of gating. In order to emphasise the dichotomy of the process in which aging people congregate together and, simultaneously, segregate themselves from urban life, we coined the term “age-regation”. We provide a comprehensive and logically structured theoretical framework, in which the theoretical bases of the gated retirement village are discussed within two overarching constructs, namely age (identity, lifestyle) and the congregation/segregation enclave (physical, social, psychological, political, economic, mobility, racial).

Afrikaans: Die uitsluiting van bejaardes blyk internasionaal ’n algemene en onafskeidbare deel te wees van stedelike lewe. In ons studie het ons struktuur-agentskapverhoudings gebruik om die treffende elemente van “afkamping” te identifiseer en analiseer. Om die digotomie van hierdie proses (waar bejaardes versamel en terselfdertyd hulself afsonder van stedelike lewe) te beklemtoom, het ons die term “veroudering-as-afsondering-en-uitsluiting” gekonstrueer. Ons stel ’n omvattende en logies gestruktureerde teoretiese raamwerk voor waarin die teoretiese basis van “uitsluingsaftreedorpe” bespreek word binne twee oorhoofse konstrukte, naamlik, ouderdom (identiteit, lewenstyl) en samesnoering/segregasie-enklawe (fisies, sosiaal, sielkundig, polities, ekonomies, mobilisering, bevolkingsgroep).