Public Space and intergenerationality: Exploring the intersection of spatiality and sociality in everyday life


Devan Hunter, University of Guelph

Intergenerational spaces are those that create opportunities for the inclusion of and interaction between different age and generational groups within one space. In opposition to this though, much of North American society, and Canada in particular, is highly age segregated (e.g. school systems, long-term care facilities, workplaces, etc.). Indeed, sociologists of aging, such as Hagestad and Uhlenberg (2005; 2006) explain that features of this chronologic separation occur within institutional, spatial and cultural spheres in urbanized industrial nation-states where there is an interplay between such spheres. This ultimately results in macro-level structures of age segregation, meso-level patterns of age-homogenous association, and micro-level processes of age segregation in everyday life. And, while age segregation continues to be a dominant feature of North American society, certain spaces afford us the opportunity to disrupt such barriers to connecting across (age and generation-related) differences. Commonly studied intergenerational spaces include organized, formalized and programmatic spaces. Less studied, but equally important, are those informal spaces of mundane intergenerational interactions in everyday life (Yarker 2019). Broadly speaking, public space is one such space. This intersection between intergenerationality and public space is the crux of my research. Drawing on data from the second and third phases of my doctoral study on intergenerationality in Canadian public spaces, along with research I am conducting for the Sociable Cities Project (University of Guelph), this presentation will explore how social infrastructure and various features of public space iteratively shape, and are shaped by, processes of intergenerationality. To accomplish this, I am studying intergenerationality in four different types of public spaces in Guelph, Ontario: a library (Guelph Public Library), a park (Exhibition Park), a skatepark (Silvercreek Skatepark), and an ice rink (Market Square Ice Rink). My findings will be drawn from both 150 hours of ethnographic observations of these four spaces in total, as well as 50 on-site interviews with participants in these public spaces (all to be completed by May 2024). Theoretically, my study is oriented towards a cultural sociological tradition that centers interpretive logics of meaning-making, along with a close engagement with Klinenberg’s (2018) theory of social infrastructure. In doing so, I will highlight key findings related to not only the role of public space in constituting various processes of intergenerationality, but furthermore, what types of intergenerational encounters, interactions, and relations are afforded by the social infrastructure of these various public spaces. Examples of key findings I will discuss include, but are not limited to: participants’ perceptions of intergenerational co-presence in public spaces; intergenerational negotiations of public space; experiences of solidarity and conflict amongst age-diverse populations; how age segregation is both contested and culturally reproduced in the temporal uses of public spaces; and, how boundaries of age-appropriate social relations shift within the context of public space. Overall, my aim is to emphasize the deep entanglement between spatiality and sociality, particularly with respect to intergenerationality, to thus explore not only the possibilities for connection across difference in everyday life, but also why such connection matters in the development of a resilient and inclusive society.

This paper will be presented at the following session: