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To understand ageing well, one needs to study not only those who are ageing but also the places within and with which people are ageing. In the past, much ageing‐well research has been focused on ensuring individuals have the “right” resources and are engaged in the “best” types of activities. However, recent theorizing has prompted the study of ageing well as a process of making sense of self amid later‐life changes. Building on Rowles' attachment‐to‐place work, the purpose of this paper is to consider how the “thick concreteness” of place influences later‐life meaning making.

This is a theoretical paper on ageing.

The paper draws on Casey's phenomenological conceptualization of places as imprinting themselves on bodies and selves, much as humans shape the places they inhabit. Data from interviews with older rural women in western Canada illustrates how this conceptualization can enhance understanding of ageing well relative to place as a physical, socio‐cultural and temporal phenomenon. In a place that has been depicted as inhospitable, participants have chosen to stay even as practically invisible kin and community “keepers” on the “frontier”.

This original paper suggests that to age well is to age locally and to make sense not only for self about self and one's own ageing but also for ageing in mutually compatible ways in that place.

With the so-called greying of many nations, ageing is becoming a critical issue for social and urban policy (Polivka & Longino, 2004). While populations may be ageing chronologically in many countries, notions of ageing and ‘the elderly’ are shifting – influenced by economic, political and cultural changes. People are living longer, and are living more diverse and flexible lives. The shape of their lives is changing in relation to factors such as government policy, the economy, leisure and work practice, and the giving and receiving of care (OECD, 1996). Such changes pose challenges for policy makers as these societal shifts have both social and spatial consequences. ‘Ageing’ is consequently a concept which needs unpacking in order to make informed decisions about planning and public policy – to understand how the concept of age is shaped, negotiated and experienced differentially in place (Williams & Ylanne-McEwen, 2000). This chapter shows how the personal stories and experiences of older individuals form narratives which can both shape and challenge policy makers’ views of ageing and place relationships.

The provision of home and community supports can enable people to successfully age-in-place by improving physical and mental health, supporting social participation and enhancing independence, autonomy and choice. One challenge concerns the integration of place-based supports available as older people transition into affordable housing. Sustainable solutions need to be developed and implemented with the full involvement of communities, service organizations and older people themselves. Partnership building is an important component of this process. The purpose of this paper is to detail the intricacies of developing partnerships with low-income older people, local service providers and nonprofit housing associations in the context of a Canadian housing development.

A community-based participatory approach was used to inform the data collection and partnership building process. The partnership building process progressed through a series of democratized committee meetings based on the principles of appreciative inquiry, four collaboration cafés with nonprofit housing providers and four community mapping workshops with low-income older people. Data collection also involved 25 interviews and 15 photovoice sessions with the housing tenants. The common aims of partnership and data collection were to understand the challenges and opportunities experienced by older people, service providers and nonprofit housing providers; identify the perspectives of service providers and nonprofit housing providers for the provision and delivery of senior-friendly services and resources; and determine actions that can be undertaken to better meet the needs of service providers and nonprofit housing providers in order to help them serve older people better.

The partnership prioritized the generation of a shared vision together with shared values, interests and the goal of co-creating meaningful housing solutions for older people transitioning into affordable housing. Input from interviews and photovoice sessions with older people provided material to inform decision making in support of ageing well in the right place. Attention to issues of power dynamics and knowledge generation and feedback mechanisms enable all fields of expertise to be taken into account, including the experiential expertise of older residents. This resulted in functional, physical, psychological and social aspects of ageing in place to inform the new build housing complex.

The time and effort required to conduct democratized partnerships slowed the decision-making process.

The findings confirm that the drive toward community partnerships is a necessary process in supporting older people to age well in the right place. This requires sound mechanisms to include the voice of older people themselves alongside other relevant stakeholders. Ageing well in a housing complex requires meaningful placemaking to include the functional, physical, psychological and social aspects of older people’s everyday life in respect to both home and community.

Most older people wish to age “in place”. However, as current housing is mainly unsuitable for later life, architects have a key role to play. Yet, there is little architectural consideration for the notion of “ageing in place” and its various facets, beyond a functional focus. Architects seem to lack support to grasp inhabitants' sensible needs, and thus synergies with other human-centred disciplines could be enlightening. To ensure homes are designed in line with people's wellbeing, the authors aim to provide a state-of-the-art view, as to build a model supporting architects through their understanding of older people-environment relationships.

In this paper, the authors investigate the key concepts that could enrich architects' design approaches on “ageing in place”. A narrative literature review scrutinising English- and French-written publications from the last twenty years in various disciplines was conducted, with a focus on older people and non-institutionalised housing.

The results highlight five essential perspectives to be taken into account when questioning housing for older people: health, affective, social, built and contextual perspectives. Their meaning and ties are developed and then synthesised into considerations, calling for architectural creativity.

This fivefold theoretical model adds to the existing architectural body of knowledge by adopting a multidisciplinary and multidimensional angle, going beyond the predominantly pragmatic vision associated with ageing. It provides stakeholders in architecture with a fresh and clear insight of meaningful relationships between older people and their residential environment.

This paper explores ways in which Singapore adapts its planning policy and practices to meet the needs of its growing silver population, particularly the relationship between ageing related policies and its urban development strategies.

The research assesses Singapore's urban planning policies for the ageing population against the WHO framework for age-friendly cities using Kampung Admiralty (KA) (a pioneering project of integrated housing cum community for the ageing population) as a case study for the analysis. The methodology adopted includes a post-occupancy evaluation and a walking tour of the selected case study (Kampung Admiralty), and an analysis of Singapore's ageing policies in relation to urban planning governance.

The study examines the role and significance of a multi-agency collaborative governance structure in ageing planning policies with diverse stakeholders in the project. The evaluation carried out on KA reveals the challenges and opportunities in urbanisation planning for the ageing population. This paper concludes by emphasising the potential of multi-collaborative governance and policymaking in creating an inclusive, liveable built environment for the ageing population in Singapore, particularly but also potential implications for other ASEAN tropical cities.

The case study identified key issues in Singapore's urban planning for betterment in ageing and highlighted the requirement for enhancing urban planning strategies.

This article fulfils an identified need for the Singapore government to address the issue of ageing by providing affordable and silver-friendly housing to its ageing population.

Ageing populations, although exhibiting marked differences across countries and cultures, are a global phenomenon. Old‐age dependency ratios in most developed countries are projected to double by the year 2050. In Australia there will be a strain on economic growth as a large part of the population moves from pre‐retirement to post‐retirement age over the next 25 years. A disproportionate amount of this strain will be concentrated in aged‐care housing or retirement accommodation. Current evidence suggests that existing housing stock for older people is inadequate. As the Australian population ages, the maintenance and long‐term performance of retirement housing is a key concern of government and housing providers. This study looked at four aged‐care or retirement providers across Australia and examined the performance of the current housing stock managed by these providers. The interviews revealed that housing design decisions in retirement stock, although critically important to the changing needs of occupants and the adequate supply of suitable housing, are often ill‐considered. The findings critically question the idea of simply building ‘more of the same’ to relieve demand. This study has major implications for the future of Australian retirement housing, especially as the population ages dramatically.

Despite continuing workforce challenges over the last decade, the social care system is considered a key enabler in keeping older people out of hospital. In response to the workforce challenges, White Paper was released, which acknowledged the opportunities afforded by digital technology to assist older people ageing at home, often supported by informal caregivers. Given the policy emphasis on digital-enabled care, the most appropriate methods for evaluating its impact on social care outcomes have yet to be determined. The purpose this study was to review the current literature using a systematic approach to understand the methodological limitations to inform more robust evaluations in their use in future research.

This scoping review used a systematic approach adopting the framework of Arksey and O’Malley to examine studies examining the adoption of digital technologies to assist in older people’s ability to age in place.

The 21 relevant studies identified on digital technology to assist ageing-in-place are evolving. To date, it has focused on the efficacy and usability of the digital technologies themselves rather than investigating the impact of such technologies on re/enablement outcomes for older people. To rebalance this emphasis, there needs to be more research investigating the factors that enhance useability of digital technologies by older people and exploiting narrative data gained from qualitative research as they can provide valuable insights.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first scoping review to consider qualitative methodological approaches for exploring ageing in place.

The Village model, most extensively developed in the USA, is an innovative response to ageing populations and older adults who wish to remain living independently within their community. The “Urban Villages” participatory action research study aimed to test the potential of the Village model to work with groups of older adults in two economically deprived, inner-city neighbourhoods in Manchester, UK.

Participatory methods were used to work with residents to, first, adapt the Village model to the Manchester setting, and second, to develop and deliver community projects that supported ageing in place. The study aimed to involve marginalised individuals and groups in the co-design, leadership and implementation of the projects. Ethnographic methods were applied to observe and reflect on the development of “Urban Villages”. Interviews and focus groups were organised to gather the views of the residents involved in the community projects.

Residents were supported to develop and test seven projects, all aimed at reducing social isolation and supporting ageing in place. The study provides new insights into challenges related to co-production with older people in deprived neighbourhoods. These challenges are presented under the following headings: individual capacity and expectations; collective capacity including communication and knowledge; and the capacity of place.

To date, only a limited amount of literature is available showing how co-production with older adults can be realised when working with marginalised groups and deprived communities. The paper explores the potential of participatory approaches to develop age-friendly initiatives through strengthening the capacity of older adults to age in place.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the age-friendliness of local environments and self-reported loneliness for a representative sample of community-dwelling adults aged 55+ in Ireland.

Data were from the Healthy and Positive Ageing Initiative Age friendly Cities and Counties Survey (n=10,540) (2016). Several age friendly indicators, as proposed by World Health Organisation, were included in this study: outdoor spaces and buildings; access to social services; social participation; respect and social inclusion; and transport. Loneliness was measured using five items from the UCLA Loneliness Scale. Informed by an ecological approach to ageing, multi-level negative binomial regression models were used to investigate the association between each age friendly indicator and social loneliness. Models were adjusted for known demographic, socio-economic and health correlates of loneliness.

Average loneliness scores were significantly higher for those in poorer health, who lived alone, were materially deprived and those never or formerly married. Lower ratings and poorer outcomes for several interrelated age friendly place-based factors were significantly associated with higher loneliness scores: difficulty with transport, difficulty accessing social services, barriers to community activities, lower social engagement, and experiences and perceptions of ageism in the community; however, the effect sizes were small.

This study identified several modifiable age friendly features of local environments that are associated with loneliness in this older population. The results of this study can inform coordinated local and national efforts to enhance the age-friendliness of local environments and reduce the risk and experience of loneliness among the ageing population in Ireland.

The population of New Zealand (NZ) is ageing; the proportion of people aged 65 and over as compared with the younger age groups is expected to increase from 15 per cent in 2016 to approximately 30 per cent by 2068. This change in demographics is bound to apply some pressure on economic resources due to factors such as superannuation and increased healthcare needs. The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of technology as being economically beneficial for managing the grey tsunami that has commenced in NZ. Though technology is still not being utilised to its full capacity in the healthcare sector, there is a reason enough to believe that it could be used in assisting with ageing in place. However, its cost-effectiveness has not been clearly demonstrated.

A literature search was performed using search engines such as ProQuest, EBSCO, CINAHL and Google Scholar. Keywords used were ageing in place, technology, assisted living technology, ageing, telecare and telehealth. The papers selected were publicly available. To determine if the cost evaluation literature were of acceptable quality, they were assessed according to a well-recognised economic evaluation checklist by Drummond et al. (2005).

As is evident from the demographic figures, there needs to be timely intervention to appropriately manage the ageing population given the projected financial and population figures. Technology has proved beneficial especially with positive ageing. A significant reason for it hardly being used is the lack of thorough studies that demonstrate its cost-effectiveness. The studies that have tackled the subject of economic evaluation have provided mixed results with some labelling technology as cost-effective and the others opposing this finding. Studies have shown that even the simplest form of technology such as a phone call, mobile health application or a pedometer can be effective.

The majority of research and funding is directed towards supporting the frail adults instead there should be equal focus on those who are reaching the old age group. Since current data suggest that people are living longer, early intervention is beneficial to reduce the number of years lived with disabilities along with associated costs of disease burden.

Healthcare policymakers need to take more proactive steps through incorporating technology rather than deferring its use until proven beneficial by large studies as this is not feasible given the rate at which technology is developing. Studies have shown that even the simplest form of technology such as a phone call, mobile health application or a pedometer can be effective.

Technology increases awareness and allows people to be more disciplined with their health plan which increases good health. Early intervention also means relying and involving the primary level of care to manage the disease which would be more economically beneficial than postponing care until the disease progresses in which case secondary or tertiary levels of care must be sought.

This is an emerging field in the area of aged care and only begins to expand potential horizons. Studies show that a significant number of the population prefer to stay in their own homes as they age and that with the improvement in technology this could become a reality. However, health planners need to be considering technology when developing health and social services.