A New Housing Mode in a Regional Landscape of Care: A Sociocultural Psychological Study of a Boundary Object

Abstract

Abstract The study of ageing, which received growing attention over the past 30 years, has progressively realised the importance of the cultural, historical, and socio-economical environment for the various courses of ageing. However, we believe that it could be further conceptualised. First, we propose to enrich it through the notion of “landscape of care” developed by geography. Second, the distinction developed by sociocultural psychologists between sociogenesis, microgenesis, and ontogenesis is useful to articulate different scales of the landscape of care and to consider individual trajectories. Finally, the notion of boundary object leads us to discuss how a specific object might play a bridging function in this landscape. We draw on a regional case study carried out in a Swiss canton where the building of “flats with referees” is part of a new policy that aims at adapting the care and support network to demographic change and to favour ageing in place. Our hypothesis is that these flats may have a function of boundary object as they lead various actors to collaborate. Based on observations, desk research, and interviews, the study shows that on a sociogenetic level, these flats have a bridging function. However, on ontogenetic and microgenetic levels, divergences and misunderstandings hinder these flats to fully achieve this function. By examining the changes in the landscape of care, this article contributes to a better understanding of people’s trajectories within their sociocultural environments.