Social Phenomenological Geography: Retirement homes in Transition? Socio-spatial proximity and distance relations of old and very old people in the context of the pandemic
Duration: 2020-2022
Project Management: Jun.-Prof. Simon Runkel
Funding source: own funds
Research focus: Geographies of the life course
Content
In public and media discourses, during the COVID 19 pandemic and the associated socio-politically enforced measures to contain the virus, a distinction was made between risk groups on the basis of the category "age". This distinction reinforced existing social relations by solidifying already existing categorisations and spatial separation according to age groups. This is particularly evident in nursing homes for the elderly, where restriction and isolation make residents even more invisible. For this reason, the study intended to ask people in old-age care facilities how the measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 as well as the corresponding public discourses about it, the spatial and locational situation of old people in care facilities are perceived and experienced with special regard to the social relations of proximity and distance
Literature (selection)
Kauer, D., Runkel, S. (2023): Soziale Nähe und Distanz im Altenheim. Eine Fallstudie zu raumbezogenen Erfahrungen alter und hochaltriger Menschen in dem „high-risk setting“ Altenzentrum während der Pandemie. [zur Begutachtung eingereicht]