Socio-spatial Attributes of Age-friendliness in Swedish Municipalities’ Comprehensive Plans: a Content Analysis

Abstract

Critical voices call for socio-spatial policy interventions to ensure health and well-being of increased proportion of older people. The municipalities in Sweden can decide and influence the socio-spatial environments through comprehensive plans to attain quality of life for older people. Qualitative content analysis of comprehensive plans of three Swedish municipalities – Sotenäs, Älvkarleby and Sundbyberg – was done using spatial justice theory and age-friendliness concept to understand how the socio-spatial justice for older people are portrayed in these comprehensive plans. The findings revealed that ageing population is viewed as welfare challenge and barrier to economic growth. Furthermore, abundance of physical services in promoting ageing-in-place, active and healthy ageing in the accessible private and public spaces and nature partly characterize spatial justice for older people. But there is a tendency of undervaluing the agency of older people by treating them as homogeneously vulnerable group in comprehensive plans which delimit the holistic spatial justice for older people.