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three - Negotiating unfamiliar environments
- Edited by Alan Walker, The University of Sheffield
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- Book:
- The New Dynamics of Ageing Volume 2
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 13 April 2022
- Print publication:
- 25 July 2018, pp 35-50
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- Chapter
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Summary
Introduction
‘Active and healthy ageing’, with the goal of staying as independent as possible for as long as possible, has continued to be the policy focus in many countries (WHO, 2015). ‘Ageing in place’ and individual responsibility have also become enshrined in policy, reinforcing the importance of designing age-friendly communities that support independent living. To feel safe and comfortable in one's local neighbourhood with access to a variety of activities are crucial factors in retaining independence in later life. ‘Ageing in place’ and ‘place attachment’, another concept well used in ageing research (Smith, 2009), however, assumes some familiarity over time with that place.
Age-friendly cities are viewed as sensitive to age from the perspective of older residents living there. Although this is a critical component, which should be at the heart of all considerations of town planning, increasingly there is a need to assess the environment from the perspective of a visitor or someone who is unfamiliar with the environment. There are three major reasons that older people are increasingly experiencing environments that can be unfamiliar to them. This may be because of travelling as tourists to new areas; urban regeneration; or as a result of cognitive decline, where the familiar becomes unfamiliar.
The central aim of the project was to determine the mechanisms and strategies used by older people to navigate unfamiliar spaces as pedestrians (‘unfamiliar’ defined as new spaces to the older person or spaces that have become unfamiliar). Although there are many studies on accessibility (Granborn et al, 2016; I’DGO, no date), there is less research on the impact and effects of architecture and town design on older people's walkability, usability or their perception of the unfamiliar built environment.
The effects of the built environment and use of space on older people's self-perception and identity are being increasingly recognised (Peace et al, 2006). As people go through the life course, their use of space changes (Rowles, 1978).
six - Participation and social connectivity
- Edited by Alan Walker, The University of Sheffield
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- Book:
- The New Science of Ageing
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 04 March 2022
- Print publication:
- 29 August 2014, pp 181-208
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- Chapter
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Summary
Introduction
Extending participation and social connectivity is now widely accepted as central to adding life to years as well as healthy years to life, while participation in the life of the community is seen as critical to well-being (Sen, 1992, p 39), and capable of addressing older people's rights, extending inclusion, reducing exclusion, easing demand on national budgets and building social cohesion. The central conundrums of increasing participation and social connectivity are, first, the intermeshing of personal, local, meso and macro level factors in shaping participation and social connectivity, and second, how the drive towards increased participation can be included in framing policy in such a way that participation is individually meaningful, social connectivity is enhanced and benefits flow to participants and to society in general. Underlying the application of the concepts of participation and social connectivity to older people is the idea that old age places people outside the mainstream: that older people's participation and social connectivity is wanting in scale or scope, that they do want or should want to participate more and that it is chiefly the impediment of old age that constrains their participation. Categorised as outside the mainstream, older people become defined by their age rather than those other salient aspects of their social identity, class, sexuality, ethnicity, education, histories and personal outlook that policy makers and implementers find difficult to respond to in relation to older people. This chapter examines older people's experiences of participation and social connectivity across a range of geographical and social locations within the UK and within low and middle-income countries, in order to test conceptualisations of older people's participation and social connectivity against experience, and to begin to trace the individual, local, meso and macro factors and linkages that need to be addressed to extend meaningful participation and engagement for people who happen to be older.