Low-Income Cooperative Living Environments: An Analysis of Universal Design Features That Support Aging in Place

Affordable housing for low-income older adults is in significant demand in the United States. Housing options available, however may not recognize how design can support social infrastructure in addition to basic physical accessibility. The aim of this research was to provide an analysis of the efficacy of the planning and design principles applied to a recently constructed cooperative living home. The goal was assess the universal design (UD) of features that supported aging in place, and, to inform the planning of future projects for the community. A post-occupancy evaluation process was conducted at the home, and all five residents consented to structured focus group discussions as well as individual interviews regarding their specific experiences living in the home. An environmental assessment was completed through detailed field notes, measurements, and photo documentation. An analysis of specific features of each room of the home was then assessed by the seven UD principles. Results revealed the specific features of each space that contributed to the completion (or the limitations) of basic activities of daily living as well as instrumental activities of daily living. These assessments were validated through feedback provided by the users. Many features of the home were found to be positive and supportive of equitable use by all residents. Other design attributes that could be improved were related to size and space for approach and use, and providing flexibility in use. Specific design changes based on resident input, such as kitchen function, storage safety, and lighting details, are highlighted and discussed.

Conclusion to Part 2

Kropotkin described the work he completed for Le Révolté as the ‘foundation of nearly all I have written later on’.1 What did that mean? His early writings pointed up several themes: that anarchism was an ethical approach to politics; that the problems that socialists confronted were global; that science, construed poetically, offered a key to the resolution of those problems; that submissiveness and passivity were fatal barriers to social change and social solidarity was a catalyst for action; that change was a principle of life on Earth; and that fluid movements forged across diverse populations offered a model for cooperative living. Kropotkin presented these ideas in a distinctive way, using nihilism as his touchstone, but in developing his positions on nationality, slavery and the cementation of elite power, he aligned himself with Proudhonist and Bakuninist anti-authoritarianism. And his commentary on the Paris Commune formalised the ideological division that this alignment signalled. Yet there is scant evidence in Kropotkin’s early writings that his identification with anti-authoritarian politics was a launch-pad for a theory resembling classical anarchism....

GEORGE HERBERT MEAD ON TERRORISM, IMMIGRANTS, AND SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS: A 1908 LETTER TO THECHICAGO RECORD HERALD

George Herbert Mead's advocacy of innovative social reform was not a distinct endeavor unrelated to his pragmatist social philosophy. In fact, the convergence of social philosophy and social reform is discernable in Mead's analysis of social settlements: an analysis that led him to conclude that settlements were indispensable social organizations for promoting cooperative living and civic progress within America's emerging industrial municipalities. For Mead, the settlement was the only social organization capable of understanding the immigrant's world and explaining that world to the nonimmigrant. In 1908, Mead wrote a letter to theChicago Record Heraldendorsing the work of social settlements. He composed the letter during an era when the violent actions of some political extremists (i.e., anarchists) seemed to encourage many native-born citizens to regard all immigrants as nascent terrorists and to treat organizations created to assist immigrants, such as settlements, with distrust and hostility.Most unfortunately, theChicago Record Heraldrefused to publish Mead's letter. This article describes the historical circumstances that prompted Mead to write a letter in defense of settlements; it then reprints the original letter in its entirety, with annotations; and, it concludes by briefly noting the letter's significance in relation to Mead's other writings about social settlements.