Abstract
The purpose of this study is to support social transformations to ease the lives of aging populations based on an economy of means through the facilitation of co-living arrangements and learning for seniors. We moreover carried out the study post-COVID to get an idea of how COVID impacted older people. This study is of a qualitative nature with first having participants in a successful French senior co-housing building carry out journal entries over six months, which were analyzed to uncover emergent themes, followed by the creation of a selection questionnaire for membership in similar co-housing units for seniors in Canada. Initial questionnaires will be annotated by participants from Canadian retirement homes. Implications of the research Having identified the qualities among the successful co-housing participants and the questions they felt needed to be addressed we arrived at an inventory questionnaire that can be used for the selection of future co-housing members to ensure harmonious living. This allows independent retired people to live together supporting one another without high costs to the government although there would be subsidies for rents. Past research has shown that people living together that way enjoy longer serene lives without medicalized help unless there are grave problems. Friends have spontaneously started such shared housing in several countries, yet the experiments often failed after just a few years. Since the model we analyzed has existed for over 12 years, there is a greater chance that this different concept will work.
Presenters
Marie J. MyersProfessor, Education and Graduate Studies, Queen's University, Ontario, Canada
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Designing Social Transformations
KEYWORDS
Economy of Means, Lifelong Learning, Independent Retirees
