Growing Old in Aging Communities

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Abstract
This paper provides a descriptive analysis of the experience of population aging in rural small towns from the complementary perspectives of communities and their aging residents. We begin by noting that high proportions of elderly residents distinguish small rural towns from dispersed rural communities as well as from larger towns and cities. Then we consider the socio-economic characteristics of the rural elderly and the major features of their social world. This leads, in turn, to an examination of the recursive relationship between person and place. Voluntarism is used to exemplify the dynamic link between the aging individual and the aging community. The paper concludes with a consideration of the ways that “personal troubles” may become “public issues” in rural small towns struggling to cope with their aging populations.

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