Abstract
Rural place is a significant influencer of the ageing and states of well-being experienced by older women. This paper extends existing knowledge on gendered rural place by examining its influence on mid-life (45–65 years) women in rural Sweden and rural Ireland. This paper also examines rural place identity, self-identity and the enhancement of the self, and the multiple pathways to place attachment at mid-life. Qualitative data were gathered in 2019 from ten women living in Sweden’s rural Värmland region, and in 2012–2013 from 25 women living in Ireland’s rural Connemara region. Adopting a social constructionist approach within a lifecourse framework, methodology was informed by constructivist grounded theory, using one-to-one semi-structured interviews. These distinct studies show both similarity and difference in rural place identity and self-identity among mid-life women, and highlight nuances around place attachment, the home, social relationships, and the natural environment. The data show a compelling need for a greater consideration of the critical and diverse role rural place plays in shaping women’s experiences of ageing and well-being both at mid-life and in older age.
Highlights
The aim of this paper is to explore and reflect upon how mid-life women in rural regions of two European States, Ireland and Sweden consider the role of rural place in their lives, of how they construct and experience rurality, and of how such constructions influence place and self-identity as well as levels of attachment to place and well-being
Discourse around the roles that rural place plays in the lives of mid-life women in Ireland and Sweden are explored in this paper through qualitative data, but such articulation could be approached quantitatively in literature by using for example a semantic differential scaling technique in which research participants express rural descriptors along a continuum [65] in order to help determine
In Sweden, participants spoke of biotic and abiotic properties [83] that bonded them to their rural place
Summary
The aim of this paper is to explore and reflect upon how mid-life women in rural regions of two European States, Ireland and Sweden consider the role of rural place in their lives, of how they construct and experience rurality, and of how such constructions influence place and self-identity as well as levels of attachment to place and well-being. Ireland and Sweden, combined with diverse ethnic immigration, and a general urban–rural distinction in levels of socio-economic investment may be expected to evoke diverse narrative from research participants on what rural place means at a micro level. It is an aim of this paper to express what rural means to those who live in it, rather than to narrowly define the concept of rural. Ireland is often alluded to as an island off an island off the west of Europe, and Sweden as a ‘spiritual and physical peninsula on the outskirts of Europe’ [7] Both countries have mostly adopted a neutral stance regarding global conflicts, and both operate ‘centrist’ governments of coalitions. It may be helpful to look beyond statistics and into the personal meaning of rural within these two countries
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