Critical human ecology and global contexts of rural ageing

Abstract

Critical Human Ecology is a contextual framework that theorises near environments as the key contexts of rural ageing. By incorporating global contexts into Critical Human Ecology theory, this chapter illustrates how such contexts provide constraints (and a few opportunities) for rural people and settings. Older persons are one of the groups that has received global attention. The chapter aims to address this theoretical gap through: Incorporating global contexts into Critical Human Ecology Theory, considering how macro contexts create constraints and opportunities in the lives of older people. Grounding this global theorising with case examples from Malawi, India, Mexico and Israel, that illustrate the immense diversity in rural communities and their older residents. Critical Human Ecology Theory was developed to draw together theoretical work from Environmental Gerontology and Human Ecology on important contexts in the lives of older persons and from Critical Theory that stresses the need to challenge discourses that foster inequities.