The changing environment and neighbourhood satisfaction in socialist high-rise panel housing estates: the time-comparative perceptions of elderly residents in Prague
Abstract
The focus of this study is on their perceptions of the opportunities and barriers presented by the changing residential environments in relation to their daily independence. The paper takes a time-comparative approach based on face-to-face interviews with elderly adults from three different study areas.
The findings suggest that neighbourhood satisfaction is influenced, among other factors, by the "life stage" of the housing estate, by the individual circumstances of moving to the neighbourhood there and by the length oftime to adaptation to the "new" environment. Although the elderly evaluate housing estates as convenient places to live, the risks related to demographic aging and the deterioration of local facilities must be taken seriously.