Institute of Social Medicine and Health Systems Research, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg (GER), Germany.
Institute of Social Medicine and Health Systems Research, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg (GER), Germany.
J Aging Stud. 2023 Dec;67:101190. doi: 10.1016/j.jaging.2023.101190. Epub 2023 Nov 4.
Social gerontology mainly addresses couples' housing arrangements in later life by focusing on partner's care, related adaptations in place, and changing role expectations within the couple relationship. Thereby, the resulting image does not fully represent today's diversity of couples' housing arrangements. This article considers housing arrangement and relationship orientation of older couples as entangled in social practice, providing a broader perspective on the diversity and dynamics of couples living arrangements in later life. In a qualitative study, we conducted joint in-depth interviews with ten couples from Germany aged 58 to 88 years. Couples talked about their shared biography and living together today. Data were merged with fieldnotes on housing constellations and analyzed following the documentary method. Couples co-constitute living together by using space in different ways. We found three relationship orientations of couples corresponding to practices of couples' housing arrangements: balancing physical and emotional presence by negotiating shared space, exploring presence by having a third common place, and reducing presence by separate housing. These orientation types which are linked with spatial (re-) arrangements reveal positioning to housing preferences in past relationships and point to societal concepts of coupledom as regards housing in later life. Space gives options for both being apart from and feeling close to the partner, partially at the same time. Diversity and dynamics of housing arrangements correspond to diversified and altering relationship orientations in later life. Considering couples' housing arrangements in later life as mutually constitutive broadens the options to examine the meaning of space in aging together. Moreover, this perspective can be combined with a critical approach towards stereotypical (hetero-) normative biases in research.
社会老年学主要通过关注伴侣的照顾、相关的适应措施以及夫妻关系中角色期望的变化来研究老年人的住房安排。因此，由此产生的形象并不能完全代表当今夫妻住房安排的多样性。本文认为，老年夫妻的住房安排和关系取向是交织在社会实践中的，为研究晚年夫妻生活安排的多样性和动态性提供了更广阔的视角。在一项定性研究中，我们对来自德国的十对年龄在 58 岁至 88 岁之间的老年夫妇进行了联合深入访谈。夫妇们谈论了他们共同的传记和今天的共同生活。数据与住房组合的实地记录合并，并按照文献法进行分析。夫妇们通过不同的方式共同利用空间来共同构成生活。我们发现了三种夫妻关系取向，对应于夫妻住房安排的实践：通过协商共享空间来平衡身体和情感的存在，通过拥有第三个共同的地方来探索存在，通过分开住房来减少存在。这些与空间（重新）安排相关的取向类型揭示了夫妻在过去关系中对住房偏好的定位，并指向了关于晚年住房的社会伴侣概念。空间为与伴侣保持距离和保持亲密关系提供了选择，部分时间可以同时进行。住房安排的多样性和动态性与晚年多样化和变化的关系取向相对应。将晚年夫妻的住房安排视为相互构成，可以扩大研究共同衰老中空间意义的选择。此外，这种观点可以与对研究中刻板（异性）规范偏见的批判性方法相结合。
