Abstract

There is an increasing curiosity in Nordic as well as Far East Asian countries about senior cohousing, where the middle-aged and elderly people, 55+. form a community for independent living. What are the ideas behind senior cohousins? Why are people moving to senior cohousing community? What may senior cohousing provide and mean for individuals and groups of the elderly? Is senior cohousing a sustainable idea for future generations of elderly people? There is a curiosity among elderly people looking for interesting alternatives. Municipalities and state authorities hope that senior cohousing can contribute to the welfare of the elderly as the scope far support by the public sector is decreasing. Actors in the building sector are interested In investment and meeting the demands. In Denmark and Sweden the senior cohousing concept had a revival around 1985. In Denmark there has been a vivid discussion and plenty of books have been published. In Sweden there are few evaluations but an increasing interest. From different points of view, Danish, Swedish and Nordic as well as Far East Asian countries, there is a concern to explore and compare to get more facts and deeper understanding far further actions. This is a comparative study of inhabitants' life satisfaction in cohousing communities in Denmark and Sweden. The study is based on discussions with cohousing providers, study-visits in cohousing communities and a questionnaire to residents themselves. Study-visits took place during springtime and the questionnaires were handled spring and summer of 2002. 655 seniors responded to the questionnaire from 14 seniorbofae llesskaber (rented or housing cooperatives) in Denmark, 11 seniorhus within the SABO sector (municipality owned housing with rental apartments) and 8 housing cooperatives initiated by the Seniorgarden Housing Company in Sweden. Data were analyzed by SPSS program, using frequency, percentage, cross-tab and chi-square test. This paper focused three major areas of interest; 1)characteristics of the inhabitants. 2) participation in common activities and mutual cooperation among residents and 3) evaluative outcomes from the inhabitants' points of view. Mainly the inhabitants expressed quite positive experiences of their living environment and everyday lift and a few difference was found in life satisfaction between Denmark and Sweden.

Keywords

• Senior cohousing;
• Life satisfaction;
• Participation in common activity;
• Mutual cooperation;
• Sweden;
• Denmark

• 노인용 코하우징;
• 생활만족도;
• 공동활동 참여;
• 상호협조;
• 스웨덴;
• 덴마크;