I Never Thought About Leaving: Why Residents Aged in Place Within Neighborhoods Experiencing Urban Decline

Despite the rich literature on “aging in place”, few studies have examined why older adults remain within neighborhoods that have experienced urban decline. This study defines “aging in place” as the process of aging within one’s neighborhood over the life course. Further, much of the literature surrounding disadvantaged, urban communities have concentrated on those who left and portray those who remain as trapped. This is particularly true for older African Americans. The purpose of this study was to understand what influenced older, African American residents to stay within their declining neighborhoods. Data was utilized from 4 years of ethnographic observations with 30 older (age 60+), African-American adults who aged within Cleveland. Additionally, multiple in-depth life history interviews were conducted with 13 of these residents. Data was analyzed using grounded theory techniques. All residents expressed a desire to remain within their neighborhoods and many indicated that they never thought about leaving. While each resident had their own reasons for staying, common themes emerged related to: 1) autobiographical insideness, 2) sense of identity, 3) home ownership, and 4) interdependent lives. This study has important implications for research related to aging in place and place attachment. For one, it provides a counter narrative to the dominant notion that residents of poor neighborhoods would leave if they had the resources to relocate. Additionally, by using a narrative method, the older adults were able to explain for themselves why they stayed and describe the meaningful lives they created despite neighborhood decline.

The Educational Migration of Sub-state Ethnic Minorities on the Outskirts of the EU

The goal of this paper is to present an analysis of the status and career choices of Hungarian, Slovak, and Romanian ethnic minority high school graduates in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, the northern province of Serbia. We implemented a purpose-built, paper-based-questionnaire process of data collection that involved 2,192 ethnic minority high school students who were finishing high school in their mother tongues in 16 municipalities in Vojvodina. The results of the analysis showed that almost 40 per cent of the sample of ethnic minority high school graduates planned to leave Serbia to study in their mother tongues in nearby European Union (EU) countries. While this brain drain is not a new trend, our research shows that there are new and different reasons for it and it was caused by the insufficiency of Serbian language skills of the ethnic minority studnets. The results of the research show that the main reason for this educational migration is thus the aspiration to obtain a diploma from an EU-based institution, which (1) grants immediate access to the EU’s integrated labor market, and (2) is perceived to improve social status compared to that of remaining in Serbia after graduating. Despite this new motive for educational migration, language barriers are still relevant determinants of the latter. A gender-sensitive analysis of the responses was undertaken that showed that there are gender-based differences in terms of which students continue their studies after high school, and in the reasons for staying in Serbia.

Adjusting to Coach Rupp’s Routines

In this chapter Joe B. explains how he had to learn to adjust to Coach Rupp’s idiosyncratic and often erratic ways. Joe B. explains his reasons for staying at UK and learning to adapt to Coach Rupp’s behavior.

Tuberculosis control from the perspective of health professionals working in street clinics

ABSTRACT Purpose: to present the opinion of professionals about street dwellers undergoing treatment of tuberculosis and identify strategies of control of tuberculosis in this population. Method: an exploratory and descriptive study involving 17 health professionals working in street clinics. A semi-structured study composed of closed questions and a guiding question. The statements were analyzed using the discourse analysis technique, resulting in the identification of two analytical categories: 1. Meanings attributed to street dwellers with tuberculosis, and 2. Control of tuberculosis in homeless people. Results: the analysis identified situations that limited adherence to tuberculosis treatment, including the reasons for staying in the streets, living conditions, and risk factors (dependence on alcohol and other drugs, short-sightedness, constant relocations, and lack of perspectives). Street dwellers were knowledgeable about the disease. Furthermore, there were difficulties in solving several problems of people living in the streets, including living conditions and lifestyle, social stigma, relocations, drug abuse, and lack of life project. Conclusion: coping with the complexity of situations related to living in the streets limits to the work of health professionals because these situations go beyond health care and require intersectoral actions.

Women’s Economic Inactivity and Age. Analysis of the Situation in Poland and the EU

The group of economically inactive women is heavily diversified. The reasons for staying outside the labour market are the important factors that differentiate this group. They depend on the age or level of education among others. In addition, there is great geographical heterogeneity of the reasons for economic inactivity. Hence, two questions arise. Firstly, how significant is the geograph­ical diversity of the reasons for staying outside the labour market in the European Union? Secondly, have these geographical differences been changing over time? The main aim of the analysis is the classification of the EU countries taking into consideration reasons for women’s economic inactivity in different age groups. The analysis is carried out applying descriptive statistics and the k‑means method. The data are taken from the publicly available Eurostat’s Labour Force Survey datasets. The study of general tendencies in women’s economic inactivity covers the years 2000–2016. In turn, cluster analysis was carried out for data from 2006, 2010 and 2014. The obtained results confirmed significant diversity of the EU states. In addition, this geographical diversity has been changing over time. We receive the greatest similarity of classification obtained for different periods for the 50–64 age group and the smallest for the 25–49 age group. Moreover, there are noticeable tendencies of a significant decrease in the share of the economically inactive in the group of the oldest individuals (aged 50–64) in the sample. On the other hand, in the youngest group (individuals aged under 25), there are opposite tendencies observed – the share of those who remain outside the labour market increases.