Developing age-friendly work in the twenty-first century: new challenges and agendas
ISSN: 1366-3666
Article publication date: 24 January 2018
Issue publication date: 14 March 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review factors influencing the development of age-friendly communities, pressures arising from context of economic austerity, and issues which need to be considered for further work.
Design/methodology/approach
A synthesis of academic literature covering both age-friendly research and other relevant studies.
Findings
Pressures on the age-friendly movement include: cuts to the budgets of local authorities; impact of urban regeneration; and high levels of deprivation in inner city communities. Responses need to consider: closer links with other urban programmes (e.g. healthy cities); prioritising the challenge of social inequality; exerting great control over urban development and regeneration; and devising new approaches to delivering age-friendly interventions at a neighbourhood level.
Originality/value
Although the age-friendly movement has many achievements to its name, economic pressures are raising question marks about its future progress. The paper identifies several options for future development. Central to these must be linking age-friendly debates to the inequalities and injustices which affect city life.
Keywords
Citation
Phillipson, C. (2018), "Developing age-friendly work in the twenty-first century: new challenges and agendas", Working with Older People, Vol. 22 No. 1, pp. 3-8. https://doi.org/10.1108/WWOP-12-2017-0037
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited