Call for Papers: Ageing, inequalities and urban change
RGS-IBG 28th-30th August 2019, London
Sophie Yarker and Amy Barron, The University of Manchester
This session is sponsored by the Urban Geography Research Group
Geographers have a longstanding and growing interest in the relations amidst people, place and ageing (Rowles, 1978; Warnes, 1990). Disciplinary scholars have begun to unpick the spatially uneven and place-embedded implications of population ageing and the role of community dynamics in shaping experiences of ageing (Andrews and Phillips, 2004; Ziegler and Schwanen, 2011). There is an increasing appreciation for understanding the lived experiences of ageing and how this mediates and is mediated by the environment (Skinner et al., 2015). The intersection of population ageing, population growth and the processes of urbanisation mean that cities are increasingly the place where people will grow older (Golant, 2014). It is therefore vital that Geographers consider the role of the city in the lives of older people.
Public policy and interdisciplinary researchers have begun to envisage what a more ‘Age-Friendly City’ might look like. However, factors such as population change, gentrification, and austerity mean cities are often challenging – even hostile – environments in which to grow older (Pain, 2001). The contemporary city is a convivial, intergenerational and intersubjective node within the flow of everyday life, yet it is also profoundly unequal. This session, therefore develops geographic approaches to understanding ageing and inequality in cities.
Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Ageing in/and place
- Approaches to researching with older people
- Intergenerational and intersectional approaches to urban ageing
- Urban change and ageing
- The lived experiences of ageing
- Understandings of the relation between policy and ageing
- Approaches to ageing, identity and/or marginalisation
Please email your title and abstract of no more than 250 words, along with your name, institution and discipline to amy.barron[at]manchester.ac.uk and sophie.yarker[at]manchester.ac.uk by Wednesday 13 February.