Neighbourhood Services and Ageing in Place: An Extreme Industrialisation Perspective

Environmental gerontologists recognise neighbourhood services as a key component of the social and physical environment where people age. Such services play an important role in ageing by facilitating the use of other neighbourhood resources such as parks and social networks. This role, though, depends on the availability, accessibility, and relevance of neighbourhood services, which are implicit in the “neighbourhood service mix”. In this chapter, we propose the concept of neighbourhood service mix through a theoretical synthesis, discuss its role in age-friendly neighbourhoods, and demonstrate how it chronologically changes over a heuristic we call the Neighbourhood Development Continuum (NDC). Implications of a decline in access to neighbourhood services for ageing in place are expounded. Stakeholders ought to work collaboratively to preserve access to neighbourhood services, especially essential services that are more fundamental to the maintenance of health over the life course. Governments must effectively enforce regulatory laws to avoid extreme industrial practices that may limit access to essential services and increase the likelihood of older residents relocating, moving into nursing homes, or losing a sense of attachment to their neighbourhood.