Navigating old age and the urban terrain: Geographies of ageing from Africa

Abstract

This paper extends research on geographies of ageing in relation to urban academic and policy debates. We illustrate how older people in urban African contexts deploy their agency through social and spatial (im)mobilities, intergenerational relations and (inter)dependencies. Through doing so, we reveal how urban contexts shape, and are shaped by, older people’s tactics for seizing opportunities and navigating the urban terrain. Our analysis demonstrates how a more substantive dialogue between insights on ageing in African contexts and urban ageing policy can create new forms of knowledge that are more equitable and just, both epistemologically and in their policy impacts.

A scoping review of the daily mobilities of older adults in the Global South

“…For solutions such as inclusive transport infrastructures, including pedestrian mainstreaming, there is a large disconnect between the existing legal frameworks and the actual lived mobility experiences of older adults (Kuneida and Roberts 2006). The global planning models from the WHO to promote health ageing and age-friendly cities are useful starting points, but have limited uptake in the Global South due to lack of political incentive or economic resources, the mismatch of one-size-fits-all approaches, or the confluence of other pressing local demands (e.g., rapidly growing young populations, poverty alleviation) (McQuaid et al 2020). To better address the problems of unmet mobility needs, many argue that older adults have been excluded from decision making and the research process and call for the use of more qualitative, mixed-methods and participatory research methods to enable the examination of these issues at a grassroots level (Kuneida and Roberts 2006;Porter et al 2018;Gorman et al 2019).…”

Demographic change and urban health: Towards a novel agenda for delivering sustainable and healthy cities for all

“…In some settings, the health needs of older people may be relatively well understood and represented. However, in some Asian and African contexts, where many people maintain dual residences in both urban and rural areas, we may not have a sufficient understanding of how older populations experience and manage health risks in urban settings (and for what outcomes), mediated as they are by the dynamics of kinship, culture, village networks and intergenerational mobility and care (McQuaid et al, 2021). Meanwhile, in higher-income settings, we arguably require a better understanding of how 'healthy ageing' in urban areas will be mediated by the wider economic and social forces shaping urban transformation.…”

Social geography II: Space and Sociality

“…For Van Melik and Merry (2021), the library is conceptualised as a site of ‘infrastructuring’ wherein organising lunch meetings, cultural events and classes to stimulate encounters become ways of repurposing the library into a type of social infrastructure to enhance community wellbeing. Likewise, McQuaid et al (2021) focus on how older adults constitute the connective tissue of social infrastructures that anchor urban life, including expressing agency to socially navigate (Vigh, 2009) policies, the built environment and intergenerational relations (see also Wignall et al, 2019). These writings on social infrastructure tie together the tangible spaces and intangible events, processes and relations that make up urban citizenship practices and the goals of expanding inclusion and wellbeing.…”