Une affaire de générations: La construction d'un entre-soi à l'épreuve de la mixité intergénérationnelle
Since the years 2000 in France, a new type of protected residential environment (often fenced, but not always) develops, embodied by the multiple facets of the "retirement community." This phenomenon raises the hypothesis of the transposition of a model of generation communities (retirement communities or active adults communities) from the Usa, where this type of communities appeared in the 1950s, and has since proliferated towards France. It begs also the question of community building confronted with diversity and otherness. This question underlies this paper, which observes the residential ways of living in a retirement community that has been opened to younger households in order to mitigate the effects of partial vacancy. The focus is the Villa Vermeil of Biscarrosse (Landes, France), a set of 108 rental houses managed by the Omnium Finance group. In-depth interviews were carried out with the inhabitants and the local administrator of this fenced and protected residence. The dwellers' discourses on their state of living emerge clearly through this method, giving access to their representation and use of the residential space. This monographic approach illustrates how different generations may or may not find their way to cohabitate in the context of an intergenerational mix that was imposed "after the fact." Some senior people perceive and resent this diversity as treason and in disharmony with what they were seeking in the first place when moving there.