Aging And Urbanization: Investigating Different “Aging In Place”. Models In The City As An Opportunity To Empower Individuals’ Healthy Longevity

While elderly population in the 21 century is increasing, to sustain the wave of urbanization the city’s planning and urban policies are changing. It is necessary think future scenarios according to the empowerment trend of the aging, who are moving from an ageist stereotypical view (Butler, 1975), and to innovative inclusive urban contexts that move far from an idea of elderly as a ‘problem’ or ‘economic burden’ for the society (Phillipson, 2013). According to this vision Aging in Place (AIP) models were recently introduced to sustain urban age friendly policies (Vasunilashorn, et al., 2012). AIP, in fact, considers neighbourhoods and communities as crucial determinants of healthy longevity (Oswald et al., 2010) and intend to rethink and re-designing urban spaces around aged individual’s needs. This innovation is congruent with the psychological research on aging considered in a lifespan perspective (Morganti, 2022) and with the idea of considering the aging period in a sort of “New map of life” (longevity.stanford.edu) that requires new projects for longevity. The research main objective is to understand how different possibilities of AIP can determine healthy longevity. Over 80 years groups of individuals living in two different neighbourhoods of Bergamo city are analysed as case study. Taking in mind two main focuses - individuals and places - quantitative and qualitative measurements are introduced. Adopting a bio-psycho-social and ecological model of lifespan development (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), the individual focus assesses the healthy status (quantitative) and the motivation to empower in aging (qualitative). At the same time, adopting a multidimensional and multi-level lens, the place focus requires a spatial urbanistic analysis (e.g. functional and morphological setting; presence of physical barriers or limitations) combined with an ethnographic participant observation (qualitative). This multiple approach is necessary for give importance not only to the individuals AIP choices and to the creation of her/his proximal relationships, but also to the role of the entire system that surround the individual able to determine it. Through the introduction of this research model, we would like to understand the aging individuals life history, the motivation of a living choice inside the city, and perceived satisfaction in the interaction with the urban environment she/he decide to live within. By analysing how some different AIP solutions influences their everyday living condition within the city of Bergamo we’ll be able to determine different grades of healthy longevity, and we‘ll contribute to provide a fundamental perspective shift in the studies of aging and urbanization. A possible implication of this study could be the involving of policymakers, urban planner and architects, to propose new empowerment possibilities of urban spaces (in particular public or collective spaces) and contribute to introduce cities innovation that can turn aging into affordable places for new AIP models, according to the World Health Organization proposal (WHO, 2017) and the NexGeneration EU (next-generation-eu.europa.eu).