‘It can Feel Like They've Forgotten you’: Enhancing Older Adult Participation in Urban Regeneration

Abstract

We present two innovative and impactful interdisciplinary participatory projects highlighting interconnected older adult meanings in relation to UK town centre spaces. We argue older people occupy paradoxical positions within urban policies and planning discourses, highly visibilised as objects of concern, but profoundly marginalised and excluded. Utilising a relational functional significance framework, our findings capture valuable emplaced narratives and embodied lived experiences often wholly underrepresented by 16 older adults (aged 70–88 years). Through live qualitative participatory interview approaches, we identify functionally rich local high street characteristics interconnected with urban histories, memories and identities impacting belonging and well-being, or underpinning participation, exclusions and vulnerabilities. Reflecting on vividly detailed stories and participatory methods within these empirics, we call for an expanded sense of older people's presence and agency, providing their own implications for enhancing urban settings alongside recommendations for increasing their participation within urban regeneration and related research.