Growing old in place: a view from rural New Zealand

This paper examines the interface between the perceptions of people growing old in New Zealand's rural communities and the 'objective' impacts of economic and social restructuring on their communities. A case study of two communities in the Waikato region indicates that the elderly are concerned more with the immediate impact of local business failures and service withdrawals than they are with the long-term sustainability of their lives. Strong attachment to place, together with the perceived inaccessibility of alternative housing, provides a powerful incentive for 'staying on' in service-depleted communities. In the face of a prevailing government ideology of personal responsibility and well-established problems of providing rural services, rural communities will likely be left to cope as they may with the needs of growing numbers of elderly.