The Dictionary of Human Geography

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social model acknowledgesageismas discrim-

inatory ideas and practices directed at people

solely because of their age, specifically when

this isoldage, the latter being influenced by

negative portrayals involving ‘impotency, ugli-

ness, mental decline, ... uselessness, isol-

ation, poverty and depression’ (Vincent,

1999, p. 141). Countering such ageism, it is

argued that many societies historically and be-

yond the West respond respectfully to their

elders, regarding them as sources of wisdom,

balanced judgement and effective political

leadership. Many older people shatter the

stereotypes, moreover, and are healthy, active

and able to lead lives that are personally ful-

filling and socially worthwhile. A tension

nonetheless arises between the relative bleak-

ness of the social model (e.g. Vincent, 1999),

stressing the iniquities pressing on elder life,

and a vision of the ‘freedoms’ now enjoyed by

many older people as consumers buying into

a dizzying variety of cultural practices (e.g.

Gilleard and Higgs, 2000). Much depends

on other dimensions of social being, such as

class,ethnicityandgender, which differen-

tially impact the life experiences of different

elderly population segments, and there is also

an emerging distinction between the ‘younger

old’ and the ‘older old’ (the latter, 85þyears,

now being seen as the real ‘other’ emblematic of

old age: Gilleard and Higgs, 2000, pp. 198–9).

Theseissueshaveallfiguredingeographical

scholarship on ageing and elderly people. While

children have recently attracted concerted

geographical research attention, parallel work

on elderly people remains fragmented, lodged

in different corners ofsocial,cultural,eco-

nomic,populationandmedical geographies

and various studies ofdisability. Some at-

tempts have been made to delineate an overall

field of ‘gerontological geography’ (Golant,

1979; Warnes, 1990), and to examine the inter-

sections of ageism, other bases of identity and

the socio-spatial worlds of old age (Laws, 1993;

Harper and Laws, 1995; Pain, Mowl and

Talbot, 2000). More specific studies have

considered: the migration patterns traced out

by elderly people, notably to ‘amenity destin-

ations’ in coastal areas, rural ‘idylls’ and even

purpose-built ‘retirement villages’ (Rogers,

1992); the daily activity spaces of elderly

people, including the possible diminishing of

such spaces attendant on both increasing bod-

ily frailty and loss of social roles (Golant,

1984); the everyday environmental experience

of elderly people in residential neighbour-

hoods, particularly those of the city, including

the meanings and memories attaching to the

quite mundane, peopled, object-filled places

all around them (Rowles, 1978; Golant,

1984); and the growth of ‘nursing homes’

of different kinds, with definite locational and

internal spatial configurations, which can be

critiqued as zones of exclusion, putting bound-

aries between dependent elderly people and the

rest of the population (Rowles, 1979; Phillips,

Vincent and Blacksell, 1988). cpp

Suggested reading

Andrews and Phillips (2005); Golant (1984);

Harper and Laws (1995); Rowles (1978).

agent-based modelling An approach to

understandingdecision-makingand its con-

sequences throughsimulationmodels, which

require substantial computing power. Agent-

based models recognize the interconnections

and spatial dependencies among people and

places: a large number of agents make de-

cisions that affect others who respond in a

dynamic process, the outcomes of which can

be identified and – in geographical applica-

tions – mapped (cf.game theory). The col-

lective outcomes may be unexpected, even

when the individual agents’ decision-making

criteria are fairly simple (cf.rational choice

theory). Complex patterns ‘emerge’ from the

interaction of a large number of simple de-

cisions, which is one of the hallmarks of the

burgeoning science of complexity (Holland,

1995). In this sense, agent-based modelling

conceives of the world as being generated

from the bottom up, in contrast to an earlier

generation of models in the social sciences

which were aggregative, working from the top

down (as ingravity models).

A classic agent-based model of spatial pat-

terns and processes was developed by Schel-

ling’s (1971) work on ethnic residential

segregation. His agents were households

that had preferences for the type of neighbour-

hood in which they lived – such as for whites

that ‘no more than half of their immediate

neighbours should be black’. Individuals

were randomly distributed across a chequer-

board representation of an urban environ-

ment, and those whose situation did not

match their preferences sought moves to va-

cancies where the criteria were met. Schelling

showed that the equilibrium solution would

almost certainly be a greater level of segrega-

tion than expressed in the preferences – for

example, although whites would be content if

their neighbourhoods were 50 per cent black,

most of them would live in areas where whites

were in a large majority. With increases in

Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_A Final Proof page 13 31.3.2009 9:44pm

AGENT-BASED MODELLING