Unpacking Home

: Ageing and Dying in Older Age in the southwest of England

Abstract

This thesis is based on qualitative research with older people (aged 85-98) living alone in their own dwelling in the southwest of England. In the current end-of life care policy ‘home’ is stated to be people’s preferred place of death, without critical examination of what constitutes the everyday lived reality of older people ageing and dying ‘at home’. Using a phenomenological approach this thesis discusses the complexity of ageing and dying ‘at home’, arguing that ‘home’ as preferred place of death as it is currently understood in policy is insufficient in accounting for the everyday lived experience of older people. It is argued that ‘home’ is more than a place, and a broader, more critical understanding of what older people themselves mean by ‘home’ is necessary in policy and discourses on ageing and the ‘good death’.

Drawing on in-depth, rich data from eight participants, the thesis argues that ‘home’ is something that is done, made, and experienced. In other words, it is a verb, not a noun. As the thesis will show, older people have a life time of experiences of ‘doing’ home and therefore they have multiple, and perhaps contradictory, understandings of what ‘home’ is, and what it is not. In addition to the idea that home is something people do, it will be argued that ageing is a process. In other words, ageing is about becoming and is not just a process of deterioration and decline. In this way, older people continue to develop their personality and sense of self as they approach the end of their lives.

Told through the narratives of the participants the thesis explores older people’s past and present and expectations for the future, proposing that the ongoing temporality and fluidity of older people’s lived experience(s) has to be taken into account when discussing end-of-life wishes. This perspective is important to incorporate both into policy on end-of-life and theories on ageing and dying.

Date of Award	30 May 2018
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bath
Supervisor	Kate Woodthorpe (Supervisor), Jeremy Dixon (Supervisor) & Jason Hart (Supervisor)