BEYOND FOUR WALLS: RECASTING INFORMAL PUBLIC SPACES AS LANDSCAPES OF CARE FOR OLDER PERSONS IN TIONG BAHRU ORCHID

Abstract

Care' is often associated with the private sphere, namely within home or institutional spaces. In Singapore, against the backdrop of an ageing population, the family is emphasised as the first line of support. Despite contestations and negotiations over responsibilities of care for older persons (Committee on Ageing Issues, 2006), debates largely remain within the private sphere where experiences of care in the public sphere are overlooked. This thesis aims to redress this gap by conducting static and walking interviews to identify informal public spaces that older persons socialise in, alongside their experiences of care in these spaces. In doing so, it attempts to exemplify that care is neither limited to the private sphere, nor unidirectional where older persons are seen solely as passive recipients of care. Instead, it seeks to focus on non-familial caregiving relations among older persons themselves, removing disempowering narratives of them. Within the case study of Tiong Bahru Orchid, older persons come face-toface with experiences of care through a constellation of actors and environments, including other older persons. By adopting Relph’s Sense of Place, I argue that the elder-friendly urban design of informal public spaces provides a conducive environment for the unfolding of caring relations. As the close proximity and physical comfort of these spaces shape an older person’s physical insideness (Rowles, 1983b), their frequency and interactions act as catalysts for experiences of care. Further, as older persons walk me to places where they attach the meaning of ‘space of interactions’ on, I uncover the emotional subjectivities underpinning these spatial decisions – that are often a consequence of their care experiences. In portraying the mutually constitutive relationship between an older person’s sense of place in informal public spaces and their experiences of care, these spaces are ii recasted as important sites within the landscapes of care.