‘Adref’: Theoretical Contexts of Attachment to Place for Mature and Older People in Rural North Wales

Abstract

In this paper I examine older people's attachment to place in rural Wales. The sample includes 406 people aged 70 years and over living in diverse rural communities of North Wales. Respondents were asked to divulge the main reason for wanting to stay in their present community. 522 individual verbatim statements were examined and seven key areas of attachment to place were identified: general locational satisfaction, historical perspective, aesthetic and emotional components of location, social support, social integration, appropriateness of the environment, and relocation constraints. Each of these areas is explored with reference to different theoretical perspectives. I conclude that the multifaceted nature of place attachment requires a multidisciplinary approach to the study of people and their environments. A four-domain conceptual scheme of attachment to place is developed that takes into account the interrelationship between physical, social, temporal, and psychological factors. These domains of place attachment are closely intertwined, and strongly related to each other.