Main description:

This book demonstrates how the largely neglected and multifaceted concept of distance can be used as a primary lens to expand and enrich our understandings of what older people say about their lives, needs, and wishes in diverse surroundings in the Northern periphery and beyond.

It asks how physical, social and emotional distances shape older people's everyday lives and practices. Contributions from leading experts provides interdisciplinary investigations into the experiences and stories of older people in the Northern periphery. These insights demonstrate the utility of the concept distance when reflecting on the central aspects of contemporary ageing societies. The book explores key themes such as care, age politics, technology, intergenerational relations and migration, providing perspectives that are applicable across a variety of international geographical contexts.

This innovative book offers a valuable theoretical and methodological contribution with critical new perspections on ageing in relation to distances. It will be of interest to students and scholars interested in sociology, human geography, health and social care, ageing and gerontological studies, gender studies and Arctic studies.

Contents:

Introduction: The Multiple Meanings of Distance and the Centrality of the Periphery
Shahnaj Begum, Joan R. Harbison, Paivi Naskali and Minna Zechner

Part I Older People's Stories of Geographic, Social, and Emotional Distancing

Migrating Concepts of Aging: A case study of older Russian women in Finland
Liesl L. Gambold

Narrated social distance: generational ties
Minna Zechner & Eeva Rossi

Age-friendly environments in the stories of older people in the Finnish Nordic Arctic Shahnaj Begum
Part II Distance and Digitalization in the Time of Covid 19

Distances and sense of belonging. Older people in Finnish Lapland and digital communication technologies
Paivi Naskali & Shahnaj Begum

Behind the Mask in Covid time: Perspectives of Nurses and older people in Rural Iceland
Eydis Kristin Sveinbjarnardottir, Arnrun Halla Arnsdottir, & Sigrun Sigurdardottir

The impact of COVID-19 physical distancing measures on older people in the Russian North
Elena Golubeva & Anastasia Emelyanova

Part III Older People's Rights and Equity in Nordic Arctic Communities

Voice, accommodation, and distance: How politics invade older people's experiences of home care in the Nordic north
Joan R. Harbison

Distanciation and inequalities in the Finnish and Swedish monitoring of elder care housing in Arctic Communities
Eva-Maria Svensson & Heli Valokivi

"It belongs to the house" Domestic violence and sexual abuse as everyday life in a coastal community in Northern Norway
Mona Kiil

Epilogue: the many dimensions and shifting qualities of distance

Virpi Timonen