Age-Friendly Cities and Communities


Book Description

This important book provides a comprehensive survey of different strategies for developing age-friendly communities, and the extent to which older people themselves can be involved in the co-production of age-friendly policies and practices.




Global Age-friendly Cities


Book Description

The guide is aimed primarily at urban planners, but older citizens can use it to monitor progress towards more age-friendly cities. At its heart is a checklist of age-friendly features. For example, an age-friendly city has sufficient public benches that are well-situated, well-maintained and safe, as well as sufficient public toilets that are clean, secure, accessible by people with disabilities and well-indicated. Other key features of an age-friendly city include: well-maintained and well-lit sidewalks; public buildings that are fully accessible to people with disabilities; city bus drivers who wait until older people are seated before starting off and priority seating on buses; enough reserved parking spots for people with disabilities; housing integrated in the community that accommodates changing needs and abilities as people grow older; friendly, personalized service and information instead of automated answering services; easy-to-read written information in plain language; public and commercial services and stores in neighbourhoods close to where people live, rather than concentrated outside the city; and a civic culture that respects and includes older persons.




The Global Age-Friendly Community Movement


Book Description

The age-friendly community movement is a global phenomenon, currently growing with the support of the WHO and multiple international and national organizations in the field of aging. Drawing on an extensive collection of international case studies, this volume provides an introduction to the movement. The contributors – both researchers and practitioners – touch on a number of current tensions and issues in the movement and offer a wide-ranging set of recommendations for advancing age-friendly community development. The book concludes with a call for a radical transformation of a medical and lifestyle model of aging into a relational model of health and social/individual wellbeing.




Planning for Greying Cities


Book Description

Planning for Greying Cities: Age-Friendly City Planning and Design Research and Practice highlights how modern town planning and design act as a positive force for population ageing, taking on these challenges from a user-oriented perspective. Although often related to 'healthy city' concepts, the contexts of age-friendly cities and communities (AFCC) were not emphasized until the early 2000s. Planning for Greying Cities is the first book to bring together fundamental and cutting-edge research exploring dimensions of age-friendly cities in different spatial scales. Chapters examine the ageing circumstances and challenges in cities, communities, and rural areas in terms of land use planning, urban design, transport planning, housing, disaster resilience, and governance and empowerment, with international case studies and empirical research results of age-friendly environment studies. It is essential reading for academics and practicians in urban planning, gerontology, transport planning, and environmental design.




Age-Friendly Cities and Communities in International Comparison


Book Description

The supportive role of urban spaces in active aging is explored on a world scale in this unique resource, using the WHO’s Age-Friendly Cities and Community model. Case studies from the U.S., Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, and elsewhere demonstrate how the model translates to fit diverse social, political, and economic realities across cultures and continents, ways age-friendly programs promote senior empowerment, and how their value can be effectively assessed. Age-friendly criteria for communities are defined and critiqued while extensive empirical data describe challenges as they affect elders globally and how environmental support can help meet them. These chapters offer age-friendly cities as a corrective to the overemphasis on the medical aspects of elders’ lives, and should inspire new research, practice, and public policy. Included in the coverage: A critical review of the WHO Age-Friendly Cities Methodology and its implementation. Seniors’ perspectives on age-friendly communities. The implementation of age-friendly cities in three districts of Argentina. Age-friendly New York City: a case study. Toward an age-friendly European Union. Age-friendliness, childhood, and dementia: toward generationally intelligent environments. With its balance of attention to universal and culture-specific concerns, Age-Friendly Cities and Communities in International Comparison will be of particular interest to sociologists, gerontologists, and policymakers. “Given the rapid adoption of the age-friendly perspective, following its development by the World Health Organization, the critical assessment offered in this volume is especially welcome”. Professor Chris Phillipson, University of Manchester




International Perspectives on Age-Friendly Cities


Book Description

This book brings together recent scholarly work concerned with efforts around the world to transform cities so that they are more age-friendly. Common to all of the initiatives is recognition of the importance of the community environment for the well-being of the rapidly growing numbers of older people. The collection includes chapters that examine the circumstances in which communities currently undertake significant age-friendly initiatives, public-private collaboration in age-friendly initiatives, collaboration across institutional sectors in age-friendly initiatives, policies that facilitate age-friendly developments, and the bases upon which age-friendly initiatives should be evaluated. It will be of interest to scholars in various fields including urban planning, gerontology, transportation planning, environmental design, and adult education.




Age-Friendly Cities and Communities


Book Description

As the drive towards creating age-friendly cities grows, this important book provides a comprehensive survey of theories and policies aimed at improving the quality of life of older people living in urban areas. In this book, part of the Ageing in a Global Context series, leading international researchers critically assess the problems and the potential of designing age-friendly environments. The book considers the different ways in which cities are responding to population ageing, the different strategies for developing age-friendly communities, and the extent to which older people themselves can be involved in the co-production of age-friendly policies and practices. The book includes a manifesto for the age-friendly movement, focused around tackling social inequality and promoting community empowerment.




National programmes for age-friendly cities and communities


Book Description

This publication is also available in: Español | Português Our physical and social environments are major influences on how we experience ageing and the opportunities it brings. Creating age-friendly environments enables all people to age well in a place that is right for them, continue to develop personally, be included, and contribute to their communities while enabling their independence and health. Developing age-friendly cities and communities (AFCC) is a proven way to create more age-friendly environments – for everyone. This guide provides direction to national authorities and stakeholders responsible for or involved in forming or sustaining national programmes for AFCC. The guide includes suggestions for meaningful engagement of older people in creating age-friendly environments, detailed examples of existing national AFCC programmes, and practical steps for creating or strengthening such a programme. The vision of this guide is for all countries to establish a national AFCC programme by the end of the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021–2030) – neighbourhood by neighbourhood, city by city, and country by country.




Feature Papers ”Age-Friendly Cities & Communities: State of the Art and Future Perspectives”


Book Description

The "Age-Friendly Cities & Communities: States of the Art and Future Perspectives" publication presents contemporary, innovative, and insightful narratives, debates, and frameworks based on an international collection of papers from scholars spanning the fields of gerontology, social sciences, architecture, computer science, and gerontechnology. This extensive collection of papers aims to move the narrative and debates forward in this interdisciplinary field of age-friendly cities and communities.




Reimagining Age-Friendly Communities


Book Description

Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. How can we design, develop and adapt urban environments to better meet the needs and aspirations of an increasingly diverse ageing population? This edited collection offers a new approach to understanding the opportunities and challenges of creating ‘age-friendly’ communities in the context of urban change. Drawing together insights from leading voices across a range of disciplines, the book emphasises the urgent need to address inequalities that shape the experience of ageing in urban environments. The book combines a focus on social justice, equity, diversity and co-production to enhance urban life. Exploring a range of age-friendly community projects, contributors demonstrate that, despite structural obstacles, meaningful social change is achievable at a local level.