Space to Grow Old In: The Availability of Public Spaces for Elderly Persons in Singapore

Abstract

Using a political economy approach, this paper examines the provision of facilities and services for elderly persons in urban Singapore. It posits that policies concerning this group are socially constructed and that ageist notions affect the spatial forms created for meeting the health, housing and social needs of older people. It emphasises the signi® cance of subjectivity in the environmental strategies of older persons and investigates the extent to which state provisions incorporate the concept of personal geographies. It concludes that rethinking by the state is necessary to prevent the arti® cial separation of the spaces in which elderly people conduct their everyday activities, a need which is tenable because of the limited amount of space available in the country.

Psychosocial Well-Being of the Elderly and Their Perception of Matured Estate in Singapore

“…For example, participants recruited from street interviews indicated the importance of pavilions and public parks. This aligns with the previous study conducted by Teo (1997) on 148 elderly living in Bukit Merah and Tampines, which also showed that elderly meet up not only at structured social spaces like SACs, but also at informal public spaces such as coffeeshops and void decks. In addition, male participants, who were mostly recruited through street interviews, perceived social cohesiveness significantly higher than female participants.…”

“…This area of study has largely been unexplored in Singapore's context in recent years. Teo (1997) examined the provision of facilities and services for elderly persons in urban Singapore, and posited that policies concerning this group are socially constructed spatial forms that may not adequately meet their needs, emphasizing the significance of subjectivity in environmental strategies of designing for older people-especially in land-scarce Singapore. In particular, Teo conducted surveys on 148 elderly living in Tampines and Bukit Merah to investigate their use of public space and various designated elderly corners and services provided by the state (e.g., community centers).…”

Country reports: Social and cultural geographies of South-East Asia

“…The rural -urban migration that has followed industrialization in many countries has been well documented; yet there are also important social and cultural geographies of South-East Asia that unsettle neat dichotomies of 'rural' versus 'urban' (McGee 1991;Thompson 2002). The growth of cities and expanded urban regions has spawned new kinds of social and political problematics-from commuting Country reports 139 (Punpuing and Ross 2001) to high-rise 'killer' littering (Bunnell 2002c) to accommodating increasing numbers of elderly people (Teo 1997). Urban life has also enabled new and newly differentiated 'cultures': from ideals of 'womanhood' (Ledgerwood 1996) and sexual lifestyles (Ford and Kittisukathit 1996) to spaces of consumption, whether shopping malls or 'roads for the BMW' (Leaf 1996).…”

Social benefits of urban green space

“…Human health has been defined as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" (WHO, 1948). Accordingly, aside from conducive to physical health, urban green space also has a number of psychological benefits (Orsega-Smith et al, 2004;Teo, 1997). The concept of "biophila" suggests that human cannot be separated from nature, and contact with nature is the essence for the psychological well-being (see Kellert and Wilson, 1993).…”