Developing age-friendly cities and communities: Perspectives from older adults living in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester

Creating urban environments that support and promote everyday social engagement and healthy living for older people is a key driver of social and public policy. The Age-Friendly City agenda has led to the development of interventions and policies at the city and community level aimed at supporting active ageing across key domains including
outdoor environments, transportation, housing, information and communication, participation and respect and social inclusion. This paper reports on findings from a three-year ESRC-funded project Place-Making with Older Adults: Towards Age Friendly Communities (2016-19), which is undertaking research in 18 neighbourhoods across 6 diverse cities in the UK (Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh) and Brasil (Pelotas, Brasilia and Belo Horizonte). The paper presents preliminary findings from the UK obtained using a participatory methodology that included interviews and photo-diaries to explore older adults’ perceptions of age-friendliness in their communities. The findings identify a number of barriers and facilitators to the implementation of age-friendly urban environments as well as recommendations for the future delivery of age-friendly neighbourhoods. Addressing what older people themselves deem important to age in place is essential for developing age friendly policies, programmes and interventions that support healthy and active ageing.