Self-referred inclusion/exclusion of older people in their relationship to the urban physical environment

Abstract

This article observes the process of self-referred inclusion/exclusion of older people living in the Metropolitan Region in Chile, recognizing how distinctions about their physical environment condition their participation in the different levels of functional differentiation of society. A descriptive qualitative methodology was used, based on a qualitative content analysis of the data obtained and oriented through the Social Systems Theory. We observed that older people consider the physical environment as a fundamental aspect for their social inclusion/exclusion, identifying multiple factors that facilitate/obstacle their participation in society and recognizing particular difficulties and distinctions that operate differently between communes with higher and lower multidimensional poverty indexes.