Very Old Age in a Rural Context: Findings from the Faroe Islands

This chapter is about rural ageing and discusses everyday living among men and women aged 80-plus years in small communities in the Faroe Islands, an archipelago in the North Atlantic. The question put forward is whether rural areas are good places for individuals to grow old. Findings from ten years of qualitative research among these islanders constitute the empirical data. A constructionist approach guided all the research processes, including individual and group interviews with home-dwelling men and women. Rereading and analysing earlier findings, I found four themes that together contribute to answering the proposed question about rural ageing: social relations and attachment to place; daily living in rural areas; impression management, rejecting negative stereotypes; and structures and challenges in daily living. There is a disparity between what older people want and how structural changes make living in rural areas a challenge for them. However, living in rural areas has advantages that to some extent seem to outweigh these challenges. Finding meaning in everyday activities, upholding an identity as independent and, not least, being connected to others in the community make rural communities good places to grow old. I have interviewed older individuals in these communities over the last ten years.