The relevance of affordance for women "ageing in place"

Affordance is a separate and distinct concept from affordability and is infrequently used in discussions of housing and ageing. It is nonetheless a concept that can provide a cohesive framework for the consideration of wide-ranging socio-cultural benefits thatderive from features of the built enviro...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: McKenzie, Fiona Haslam, Jefferson, Therese
Format: Conference Paper
Published: Women in Social and Economic Research 2007
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.cbs.curtin.edu.au/files/WiSER_Women_and_Leadership_Conference_Proceedings_20061.pdf
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/8555
_version_ 1848745692842950656
author McKenzie, Fiona Haslam
Jefferson, Therese
author_facet McKenzie, Fiona Haslam
Jefferson, Therese
author_sort McKenzie, Fiona Haslam
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Affordance is a separate and distinct concept from affordability and is infrequently used in discussions of housing and ageing. It is nonetheless a concept that can provide a cohesive framework for the consideration of wide-ranging socio-cultural benefits thatderive from features of the built environment.Affordance is a term coined in ecological psychology by Gibson (1979). One of the key aspects of Gibson's idea of affordance is its contrast with theories and concepts that rely solely on human perceptions as important in determining the way objects are used.That is, affordances are features of the environment that, given the capacities of a particular agent, facilitate particular actions. For example a doorway affords movement across a threshold. An important fact about affordances is that while they are in a senseobjective, real and physical, unlike values and meanings, they are neither an objective property nor a subjective property. They are both a fact of the environment and a fact of embodied behaviour that exists only in the relation between them.The inter-relationship of the affordance of housing as people age and a property's affordability to enhance affordance has not been considered by policy makers. Nor have the concepts been considered from a gendered perspective. This paper will examinethe potential benefits of applying the concept of affordance to studies of housing and the government policies encouraging 'ageing in place'. It will also consider the interrelationships between affordance and affordability, particularly for 'middlessent'women who are contemplating 'ageing in place'.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T06:21:24Z
format Conference Paper
id curtin-20.500.11937-8555
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T06:21:24Z
publishDate 2007
publisher Women in Social and Economic Research
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-85552017-01-30T11:07:28Z The relevance of affordance for women "ageing in place" McKenzie, Fiona Haslam Jefferson, Therese International Women and Leadership Conference Affordance is a separate and distinct concept from affordability and is infrequently used in discussions of housing and ageing. It is nonetheless a concept that can provide a cohesive framework for the consideration of wide-ranging socio-cultural benefits thatderive from features of the built environment.Affordance is a term coined in ecological psychology by Gibson (1979). One of the key aspects of Gibson's idea of affordance is its contrast with theories and concepts that rely solely on human perceptions as important in determining the way objects are used.That is, affordances are features of the environment that, given the capacities of a particular agent, facilitate particular actions. For example a doorway affords movement across a threshold. An important fact about affordances is that while they are in a senseobjective, real and physical, unlike values and meanings, they are neither an objective property nor a subjective property. They are both a fact of the environment and a fact of embodied behaviour that exists only in the relation between them.The inter-relationship of the affordance of housing as people age and a property's affordability to enhance affordance has not been considered by policy makers. Nor have the concepts been considered from a gendered perspective. This paper will examinethe potential benefits of applying the concept of affordance to studies of housing and the government policies encouraging 'ageing in place'. It will also consider the interrelationships between affordance and affordability, particularly for 'middlessent'women who are contemplating 'ageing in place'. 2007 Conference Paper http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/8555 http://www.cbs.curtin.edu.au/files/WiSER_Women_and_Leadership_Conference_Proceedings_20061.pdf Women in Social and Economic Research fulltext
spellingShingle International Women and Leadership Conference
McKenzie, Fiona Haslam
Jefferson, Therese
The relevance of affordance for women "ageing in place"
title The relevance of affordance for women "ageing in place"
title_full The relevance of affordance for women "ageing in place"
title_fullStr The relevance of affordance for women "ageing in place"
title_full_unstemmed The relevance of affordance for women "ageing in place"
title_short The relevance of affordance for women "ageing in place"
title_sort relevance of affordance for women "ageing in place"
topic International Women and Leadership Conference
url http://www.cbs.curtin.edu.au/files/WiSER_Women_and_Leadership_Conference_Proceedings_20061.pdf
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/8555