About the seminar
Ageing in place has long been encouraged by Australian governments; it is also regularly reported as being preferred by older people themselves. How do such aspirations translate to action plans? We assessed 85 government policy documents across Australia’s three-tiered federated government system against seven core age-friendly cities domains proposed by the World Health Organization, to reveal whether and how these policies recognised and/or responded to ageing across the different domains.
Through a textual and detailed content analysis approach, our findings show an overwhelming policy skew towards care and support services, with less focus on other domains that also contribute to successful active ageing. We argue this reflects an outdated portrayal of debilitation in later life, and a lack of recognition of how diverse circumstances impact the ageing process and corresponding support needs. Our findings also showcases the incongruence between Australian policies, international guidance and the political and resourcing realities of different government systems, constraining the broader adoption of such international guidance.
About the presenter
Dr Edgar Liu is a Senior Research Fellow at UNSW Sydney’s City Futures Research Centre. He has background in cultural and economic geography, and over a decade of postdoctoral research experience in planning and housing policy research, having first joined City Futures in April 2009. His research primarily focuses on the social and affordable housing sector in Australia; models and outcomes of public housing estate regeneration; multigenerational family housing; ageing in place; and concepts of community and place. Since July 2021, Edgar is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Sydney Partnership for Health, Education, Research and Enterprise's Healthy Urban Environments Collaboratory, a partnership between UNSW, the University of Technology Sydney, Western Sydney University, and two NSW Local Health Districts.