The importance of spatial attachments among older adults — commentary to Landby and Godtman Kling

Abstract

This commentary was inspired by the open peer review of Landby and Godtman Kling’s (2025) paper, ‘Living close to nature: how older adults in Sweden navigate relocation in later life’. Their study focuses on how nature influences older people's relocation decisions, a topic highly relevant in mature welfare societies. The results showed that older adults deeply value proximity to nature, particularly those with lifelong connections to it. This encourages older adults to move closer to nature; the closer they live to it, the more often they can enjoy it. However, as Landby and Godtman Kling point out, many factors, ranging from individual issues to social regulation, limit older people’s ability to move. More broadly, the study contributes to the ongoing debate about the extent to which the well-being of older people is the responsibility of society and, on the other hand, of the individuals themselves.