The ageing high-rise suburb and its pensioner women (Ikääntyvä kerrostalolähiö ja sen eläkeläisnaiset)

The Finnish population is rapidly ageing, but within cities this development is progressing unevenly. Large numbers of older people live in 1970s high-rise suburbs, where the main concern has been with deprivation and ethnic segregation. The geographical concentration of older people in these areas has received only scant attention. Older people in Finland are fairly active in the urban space and therefore contribute to its social production.

This study is focused on the ageing high-rise suburb of Sampola in Pori. Drawing on concepts from Henri Lefebvre’s theory of the production of space, I am interested to study how the suburb is ageing and how its space is produced by pensioner women in their daily lives. I approach the subject by abductively combining various materials. Although many high-rise suburbs in Finland are stigmatised with a problematic identity, this does not always resonate with residents’ everyday experiences. Neighbourhoods are also produced in residents’ everyday spatial practices – not only by means of institutional control. The older women in this article were active subjects in producing their neighbourhood both by marginalising other residents and by organising collective activities. Residents’ social activities can also affect the whole social order of neighbourhoods.

Keywords: older people, ageing, urban space, Lefebvre, high-rise suburb.