Urban management in terms of improving elderly people’s life quality

Abstract

PURPOSE: The main objectives of the paper are to identify the challenges that cities have to cope with in the context of population ageing and how to create conditions for improving the elderly people’s life quality through the diversification of the urban policy.

PROJECT/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The desk research method was applied in the study. The subject literature, reports, documents of international organizations, Internet sources of information, Central Statistical Office and Eurostat statistical data were taken advantage of.

FINDINGS: The analysis of the collected data has indicated that the problem of managing a city with an increasing share of elderly people is a serious challenge for local governments. In such circumstances, city management requires the involvement of all stakeholders, including, in particular, elderly people, in creating conditions influencing the city appropriate functioning.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The literature review and drawn conclusions may provide fundaments for broad discussions on city transformations that have to take into consideration numerous challenges related to the growing number of elderly people. Hence, a different approach is required. It is manifested in new forms of urban planning and management that are able to eliminate existing threats and to treat these threats as new challenges. This way, conditions contributing to the improvement of residents’ life quality can be provided.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The study broadly analyses solutions referring to the improvement of elderly people’s quality of life.