Construção de identidade(s) na velhice: Os territórios enquanto marcos identitários

Abstract

This article aims to reflect on the specific contribution of the territories - the house, the street, the surroundings - as a key reference in the identity construction of the elderly. Our reflective base was built from observations and descriptions of the territory known as "Alta", situated in the historical core of Coimbra, Portugal, and semistructured interviews with 12 of its residents as well as from field notes, systematized in a research logbook, built for this purpose. The identity construction of much of the elderly is deeply anchored in the territories where they live, especially when these people have been living for a long time in the same geographic area in which they have experienced a substantial part of their daily lives. This centrality is further reinforced when they have reduced or conditioned mobility, either by the accessibility difficulties of the territories themselves, or by personal limitations, initiated and /or intensified in old age.