Throughout life, everyday interactions with our particular material, social, and psychological environments influence our sense of self - and at the same time who we think we are influences how we behave in particular places. In later life, people bring to this relationship a lifetime's experience of responding to the challenges of changing environments. These experiences have a direct bearing on how individuals create and maintain 'home' in later life.
The research for this project was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in 1999-2003 as part of the 'Growing Older' research programme. This study by Sheila Peace , Leonie Kellaher and myself took place in England - in Haringey (north London), Bedford and Northamptonshire. Unusually it involved older people living in a range of different kinds of accommodation including, among others, residential care homes; high-rise council flats; and large detached houses - and it looked at many levels of 'environment' from small domestic objects within the home to neighbourhoods and towns.
A book based on the study was published in 2006 by Open University Press: 'Environment and Identity in Later Life' by Sheila Peace, Caroline Holland and Leonie Kellaher.
