Resisting institutionalization: Constructing old age and negotiating home

This article explores how biology, culture and the physical and social environments mutually inform the experience of old age. Findings drawn from a twelvemonth ethnographic study of a Canadian supportive housing building shaw that home space provides the material resources necessary for the senior tenants to maintain their independence, sustain a meaningful existence, and resist institutionalization. Conclusions confirm that the engagement between place, culture, and health deterioration is more complex than suggested by conventional models based on biological, cultural or geographical causality.