Location and Equity in Ageing Positively

Advanced inter-disciplinary research exploring population ageing and urbanisation

The World Health Organisation Commission for Social Determinants of Health observe that ‘social injustice is killing people on a grand scale’. This is problematic because 27% of the population will be over 65 by 2050 and more than 60% of people will live in urban environments (OECD). Residents most negatively affected in Greater Manchester live 20 years less than the UK average. Factors such as these indicate that living ‘a long and healthy life’ (WHO 2017) presents a complex research challenge. Specifically, academics need to inform the design and implementation of holistic approaches addressing health, well-being, physical, cognitive and social functioning, and social participation to enable people to live longer, higher quality lives.

LEAP research:

• Clarifies the role of settings (location)
• Attends to the role of older individuals in generating and defining their social and physical conditions (positive ageing)
• Generates interdisciplinary activity addressing health inequities by generating coherent accounts of the mediating mechanisms between structure and agency (interdisciplinary)
• Undertakes and evaluates co-produced implementation processes across diverse (global and local) settings and minoritised and marginalised communities (equitable)

LEAP is a collaboration between members of the MMU Healthy Ageing Group of over 30 academics collaborating to realise interdisciplinary research potential. LEAP draws on exceptional MMU expertise in positive ageing and health across core areas: urban-design/architecture (White, Hammond, Morton); psychology of place identity (White, Dagnall, Walsh, Opdebeeck); relational, community-led approaches to well-being across disadvantaged and minority populations (Griffiths, White, Ahmed, Hammond, Opdebeeck, Tan, Campbell, Latham); empowerment across traditionally marginalised populations through digital inclusion around AI and data (Latham); the physiological conditions of ageing well (Degens); complexity data science for participatory planning (Han, Sengupta), socially just  urban ageing  (White, Hammond); sociological conceptions of ageing positively in place (Ahmed, Campbell); and health economics and social policy for ageing well (Fatoye, Tan, Ahmed).