Work

Older people in unfamiliar environments: Assimilating a multi-disciplinary literature to a planning problem

Year: 2011

Type: article

Abstract: This article considers aspects of the assimilation of academic research to town planning guidelines and policies, in particular research conducted in terms, and with methodologies, remote from practical town planning processes. It grew out of an interdisciplinary project examining the experience of older people in unfamiliar spaces, and drew on a wide literature dealing with spatial experience from a range of perspectives. The project sought to retrieve a set of outcomes from the interdisciplinary environment of enquiry for use in the town planning process, requiring the translation of a complex knowledge base to a clear framework, and raising issues about how the richness and diversity of the original research might be preserved during this process. The article concludes that the straightforward translation of knowledge from a range of disciplines into practical policy outcomes cannot reasonably be achieved without a re-consideration of the scope of policy-related discourse.

Source: Local Economy The Journal of the Local Economy Policy Unit

DOI: 10.1177/0269094211404615

Authors: Martin Spaul, Ann Hockey

Institution: Anglia Ruskin University

Language: English

Topic: Urban Planning and Governance

Subfield: Urban Studies

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Sustainable cities and communities

Open Access status: green

Funder: Economic and Social Research Council