Meghan Joy is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Concordia University. Her research interests include the politics of population aging, theories and practice of progressive politics and policy in cities, and the socio-political role of the nonprofit sector. These topics are combined in Meghan’s research, which examines the development and implementation of the Age-friendly City program in Canadian cities.
Summary:
Aging-in-place, or in one’s longstanding residence, neighbourhood, community, and city is a policy priority for governments. However, the places in which we live are not always age-friendly, particularly for diverse senior citizens. While we have seen policy movements to address this, such as the Age-friendly City program, gaps remain, and have been compounded by the pandemic. Problems include a lack of investment and a complex and uncoordinated policy area. This talk will outline the importance of an interdisciplinary research agenda on aging-in-place to support scaling-up age-friendly programs in pandemic and post-pandemic times. I will highlight some of my research on this topic to date and will comment on how the pandemic impacts this research agenda.