Aging & Society: Eighth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

Ageing populations, socio-demographic changes, and economic challenges are key factors in driving the need for an evidence-based approach to future ageing-in-place policy and practice. ODESSA, a three-year, collaborative study involving the universities of Central Lancashire, Sheffield, Tsinghua, (Beijing), and Dauphine (Paris) contributes to this evidence base through its study, concluding in 2018, to produce an ageing-in-place framework, capable of guiding development and practice across the three participating countries. ODESSA has been explicitly concerned to integrate deliberative community engagement and a participative research approach into the study process, from elements concerned with strategic development, design, and age-specific technologies to those considering the value of individual social and community networks as sources of support, citizen participation, and sustainability. The paper will focus on findings from the study’s work on social and community networks, describing the process through which community members became researchers of their own localities, setting this in a contextual description of connected communities, an earlier five year Big Lottery funded programme which explored the key themes and dimensions of community capital through local, social, and community network analysis.