Robbins Jessica C, Seibel Kimberly A
Institute of Gerontology, Department of Anthropology, Wayne State University, 234 Knapp Building, 87 E. Ferry Ave., Detroit, MI 48202 USA.
Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, P.O. Box 11650, NL-2502 AR The Hague, The Netherlands.
Ageing Soc. 2019;2019:1-21. doi: 10.1017/s0144686x19000813. Epub 2019 Jul 18.
Gardening has well-established physical, social, and emotional benefits for older adults in varied circumstances. In Detroit, Michigan (United States of America), as in many cities, policymakers, funders, researchers, community organizations, and residents regard gardening as a means of transforming bodies, persons, communities, cities, and broader polities. We draw on ethnographic research conducted during one gardening season with 27 older African Americans in Detroit to foreground the social dimensions of wellbeing in later life and thus develop a more robust and nuanced understanding of gardening's benefits for older adults. Based on anthropological understandings of personhood and kinship, this article expands concepts of wellbeing to include social relations across multiple scales (individual, interpersonal, community, state) and temporalities (of the activity itself, experiences of ageing, city life). Even when performed alone, gardening fosters connections with the past, as gardeners are reminded of deceased loved ones through practices and the plants themselves, and with the future, through engagement with youth and community. Elucidating intimate connections and everyday activities of older African American long-term city residents counters anti-black discourses of "revitalization." An expansive concept of wellbeing has implications for understanding the generative potential of meaningful social relations in later life and the vitality contributed by older adults living in contexts of structural inequality.
园艺对处于不同环境中的老年人有着公认的身体、社交和情感益处。在美国密歇根州的底特律，和许多城市一样，政策制定者、资助者、研究人员、社区组织和居民都将园艺视为改变身体、个人、社区、城市及更广泛政治实体的一种方式。我们利用在底特律一个园艺季期间对27名非裔美国老年人进行的人种志研究，突出晚年幸福的社会维度，从而对园艺给老年人带来的益处形成更全面、更细致入微的理解。基于人类学对人格和亲属关系的理解，本文扩展了幸福的概念，将多个层面（个人、人际、社区、国家）和时间维度（活动本身、衰老经历、城市生活）的社会关系囊括其中。即使独自进行园艺活动，也能促进与过去的联系，因为园艺者会通过实践和植物本身想起已故的亲人，同时也能通过与年轻人和社区的互动与未来建立联系。阐明非裔美国长期城市居民的亲密关系和日常活动，可对抗“振兴”的反黑人话语。一个宽泛的幸福概念对于理解晚年有意义的社会关系的生成潜力以及生活在结构性不平等环境中的老年人所贡献的活力具有重要意义。
