AGING IN REMEMBERED AND IMAGINED PLACES: FINDINGS FROM AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF AGING IN POLAND

Aging in place is an influential global movement that aims to create possibilities for increasing numbers of older people to achieve a good old age. By growing old at home or in one’s community, older people who age in place aim to avoid the negative effects associated with living in institutional care (e.g., increased costs, social upheaval, dehumanization). However, the concept of aging in place rests on an implicit moralized binary opposition between the categories of “home” and “institution,” such that “home” is assumed to be the only option for a good old age, while “institution” is assumed to be the only option for a bad old age. In fact, the moral dimensions of homes and institutions are culturally and historically specific. Moreover, the focus on the physical location of the home itself belies the ways that other imagined and remembered places shape experiences of living a good life in old age. In this presentation, I draw on twenty months of ethnographic research among older people in a range of institutional and non-institutional contexts in Poland to argue that both homes and institutions can offer possibilities for a good old age, and that imagined and remembered places make important contributions to experiences of a good old age.