Embodiment and Emplacement: Identities, Representation and Landscape in Sun City Retirement Communities

Abstract

This article focuses on the embodiment, emplacement and representation of aged identities and suggests that more attention be paid to the spatiality of age relations. Identities are both externally imposed and self nominated. Using the example of retirees I explored the ways in which particular places are involved in the creation of identities. Sun City retirement communities are shown to 1) have a material form that serves the retiree identity, 2) be represented in particular ways that contribute to that identity and 3) simultaneously act as a representation. The article asks whether or not these communities are indicative of a shift to postmodernism, characterized by increased emphasis on surveillance, security, simulations, consumerism, and fragmentation of identities, in both life courses and landscapes.