Joyce Weil is an associate professor in Towson University’s Gerontology Program. She studies the meaning of place for older adults and applies social research methodologies to the study of aging. She is an associate editor of the Journal of Women & Aging and board member for the Gerontologist and for Gerontology & Geriatrics Education. In addition to articles, like those in the Gerontologist, Research on Aging, Ageing & Society, and City & Community, she is the author of The New Neighborhood Senior Center, Research Design in Aging and Social Gerontology, and Race and the Lifecourse.
Centering the voices and choices of older adults, Joyce Weil’s new text Why Place Matters: Place and Place Attachment for Older Adults offers a comprehensive review of empirical and theoretical models of person-place fit that have informed her Evolving Place Framework. Through descriptive evidence-based narratives, the diversity of late life questions for where, and maybe more importantly, for how one wants to live are showcased. This is an important text for those interested in incorporating the lived experiences of older adults into our current conceptualizations of place attachment and understanding what it means to be aging in the right place. Sarah Canham, Associate Professor, College of Social Work, University of Utah. Where is the best place to grow old? Joyce Weil skillfully demonstrates that there is no one-size-fits-all place. Why Place Matters importantly moves beyond static notions of aging in place to richly layer theory and lived experience in a new and complex reframing of 'place' in later life. Jessica Finlay, Assistant Professor of Geography, University of Colorado Boulder