scholarly journals Social Interaction in Public Spaces and Well-Being among Elderly Women: Towards Age-Friendly Urban Environments

2022 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 746
Author(s):  
Yingyi Zhang ◽  
Ge Chen ◽  
Yue He ◽  
Xinyue Jiang ◽  
Caiying Xue
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Elderly Women ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Field Investigation ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
The Social

The world’s population is aging and becoming more urbanized. Public space in urban areas is vital for improving the health of the elderly by stimulating social interaction. Many urban design projects are advertised as age-friendly but ignore the real needs of the elderly, especially elderly women, for social interaction in urban public spaces. Insufficient attention is paid to the physical and psychological characteristics of elderly women when shaping public space. This analysis addresses the question: What are the qualities of urban spaces which facilitate health-improving social interaction for elderly women? Methods include a case study in Beijing, field investigation, mapping, and qualitative and quantitative analysis. The survey was carried out in April 2021, and concerned 240 women aged 55–75 years. Results indicate that the social interactions of older women relate to both their physical and psychological situations. Public spaces can positively impact the psychological well-being and social participation of elderly women. Conclusions include insights regarding the relationship between social interaction and well-being among elderly women, as well as proposing a series of principles for shaping public spaces for an age-friendly urban environment.

Social support, dementia and depression among the elderly living in the Hobart community

1986 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 379-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. S. Henderson ◽  
D. A. Grayson ◽  
R. Scott ◽  
J. Wilson ◽  
D. Rickwood ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Mental State ◽  
Elderly Women ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Healthy Elderly ◽  
The Social ◽  
State Examination

SynopsisIn a community sample of the elderly (N = 274) in Hobart, Tasmania, cases of dementia and depression were ascertained by the Canberra Geriatric Mental State and the Mini Mental State Examination. Social relationships and support were examined by means of the Interview Schedule for Social Interaction. The elderly had fewer social relationships than younger adults, but were more content with what they did have. Elderly women had more affectional ties than elderly men. The presence of offspring in the same town increased the number of close ties and of social relationships, but was more important for men than for women. Persons with cognitive impairment or an established dementia reported that they had less social interaction than they would like. Depressed subjects reported having markedly less social interaction than the mentally healthy elderly, but did not complain that it was too little. This study provides a systematic description of the social environment of the elderly, both in mental health and in states of depression or impaired cognition.

scholarly journals An Inclusive Model for Assessing Age-Friendly Urban Environments in Vulnerable Areas

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8352
Author(s):  
Raquel Agost-Felip ◽  
María José Ruá ◽  
Fatiha Kouidmi
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Open Space ◽  
Population Aging ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Technical Standards ◽  
The Public ◽  
Planning Decision

Population aging is becoming a major challenge in many countries. This paper deals with the elderly’s specific needs in the public open space as it can play a significant role in their social inclusion and could be especially relevant in deprived areas. The main goal is to build a model to evaluate the vulnerability of the public space by focusing on the elderly’s needs, using indicators. A previous analysis of the scientific and policy-oriented literature and of the technical standards and regulations linked with accessibility and social aspects that affect the elderly in urban areas was performed to identify the main dimensions for evaluation. The interjudge agreement technique was applied to validate the indicators with a panel of experts in technical and social disciplines. The model was applied to a vulnerable area in Castellón (East Spain), based on indicators adapted to the specific context features. The agreement level reached by experts was used to weight the indicators. The application of the model permitted the vulnerability in the suggested dimensions to be estimated and a global integrated index of vulnerability in the area to be calculated. It could assist in urban planning decision making toward age-friendly and, therefore, inclusive cities.

scholarly journals Public Wi-Fi

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Alex Lambert ◽  
Scott McQuire ◽  
Nikos Papastergiardis
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Cultural Institutions ◽  
Social Good ◽  
City Councils ◽  
The Social ◽  
Large Scale Networks

Public Wi-Fi services are rolling out across Australia, with city councils and telcos building large-scale networks in urban areas. Questions as to the value of public Wi-Fi have never been more significant in the Australian context. In this article we explore how free Wi-Fi services offered by cultural institutions and municipalities influence public spaces, and ask how such services can engender practices which promote the social good. Drawing on ethnographic research into six Wi-Fi equipped spaces in Victoria, we find a variety of issues which influence whether a service will be popular and hence have a significant influence on public space. Services which are popular enable a range of uses, and this can add to the appeal and atmosphere of a space. However, Wi-Fi has yet to truly facilitate the kind of social interactions and rich civic placemaking we associate with the social good.

scholarly journals Public Space as Infrastructure of Care

Lateral ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yannis Kallianos ◽  
Pafsanias Karathanasis
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Central Places ◽  
Public Square ◽  
The Social ◽  
The City ◽  
Critical Site

Our contribution puts forward an examination of public spaces as infrastructures of care. The eruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the “social distancing” measures imposed by several governments around the world, transformed the very use and conceptualization of urban public spaces. In Athens, Greece, public space, which had already been in different ways at the forefront of multifarious crises since 2010, reemerged, once again, as a critical site of sociopolitical antagonism. Public spaces, such as squares, became central places where people could come together to share knowledge and emotions, collectively alleviate anxieties, and thus (re)negotiate their positionality in the city. Such formations and enactments of social connection, affectivity, and antagonism, reflect the entanglement between everyday life and the political, and also draw attention to the association of public space with practices of care for collective well-being during precarious times. During the ever-increasing securitization and policing of urban spaces in Athens, in which everyday life has come to be ever more permeated by precarity and uncertainty, public spaces have been reenacted as safe and more inclusive environments where people can be and act together. Our contribution also employs a video to render more intelligible the affective interconnectedness of sounds, images, bodies, materialities, and practices in public space. By attending to the affective dynamics of a public square in central Athens, we examine the entanglements between the sociopolitical production of public space and forms of care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

scholarly journals Integrative and Complementary Health Practices Building a New Health Paradigm

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
T Gemeli ◽  
H Silva ◽  
M Kato
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Universal Access ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Health It ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
New Perspective

Abstract This work arose from the need to broaden the therapeutic approach and offer a differentiated health intervention proposal based on the understanding that the illness process has repercussions on all integrated systems of Being. Since 2019, the Health Center for the Elderly in Blumenau (SC-Brasil), specialized multi-professional service, offering support for biopsychoenergetic transformation with the practice of Yoga and Meditation, through a holistic and comprehensive view of health. It begins with the Multidimensional Assessment of the Elderly, with a guideline in welcoming and qualified listening, which considers the subject and all subjectivity. From there, the expanded diagnosis and the Singular Therapeutic Project are built and the consultations with the team and the 'Re-Conhecer group' begin. The activity is weekly, aimed at the elderly and their family, takes place in an appropriate place and lasts two hours. Welcoming, pranayama, mantras, kriyas and meditation are made, as well as reflections on free themes. The professionals who conduct the practice are the dentist, trained in yoga, and the social worker, the welcoming process continues individually after the activity. Due to subjectivity, results are routinely collected in a qualitative way from the participants' report. There is a perception on the part of the participants, therapists and members of the multidisciplinary team that this work provides improvement in cognitive abilities, self-care, well-being, self-confidence, creativity, improved sleep, autonomy, balance, strengthening bonds, joy, vitality. Key messages This initiative builds new models of health care, transcending the traditional biomedical model, according to the operational guideline for comprehensiveness, universal access and equity. Provokes reflections and builds a new perspective of life with quality and participation of the elderly as subjects of their health.

scholarly journals Planning the Urban Waterfront Transformation, from Infrastructures to Public Space Design in a Sea-Level Rise Scenario: The European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture Case

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 218
Author(s):  
Francesca Dal Cin ◽  
Fransje Hooimeijer ◽  
Maria Matos Silva
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Space Design ◽  
Urban Waterfront ◽  
Mies Van Der Rohe ◽  
The Impact

Future sea-level rises on the urban waterfront of coastal and riverbanks cities will not be uniform. The impact of floods is exacerbated by population density in nearshore urban areas, and combined with land conversion and urbanization, the vulnerability of coastal towns and public spaces in particular is significantly increased. The empirical analysis of a selected number of waterfront projects, namely the winners of the Mies Van Der Rohe Prize, highlighted the different morphological characteristics of public spaces, in relation to the approximation to the water body: near the shoreline, in and on water. The critical reading of selected architectures related to water is open to multiple insights, allowing to shift the design attention from the building to the public space on the waterfronts. The survey makes it possible to delineate contemporary features and lay the framework for urban development in coastal or riverside areas.

Reconceptualizing the Public Spaces of New Urban Areas in Hanoi: The End or the New of Public-Making?

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Minh-Tung Tran ◽  
◽  
Tien-Hau Phan ◽  
Ngoc-Huyen Chu ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
The Public ◽  
Doi Moi ◽  
The World ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City ◽  
Neighborhood Level

Public spaces are designed and managed in many different ways. In Hanoi, after the Doi moi policy in 1986, the transfer of the public spaces creation at the neighborhood-level to the private sector has prospered na-ture of public and added a large amount of public space for the city, directly impacting on citizen's daily life, creating a new trend, new concept of public spaces. This article looks forward to understanding the public spaces-making and operating in KDTMs (Khu Do Thi Moi - new urban areas) in Hanoi to answer the question of whether ‘socialization’/privatization of these public spaces will put an end to the urban public or the new means of public-making trend. Based on the comparison and literature review of studies in the world on public spaces privatization with domestic studies to see the differences in the Vietnamese context leading to differences in definitions and roles and the concept of public spaces in KDTMs of Hanoi. Through adducing and analyzing practical cases, the article also mentions the trends, the issues, the ways and the technologies of public-making and public-spaces-making in KDTMs of Hanoi. Win/loss and the relationship of the three most important influential actors in this process (municipality, KDTM owners, inhabitants/citizens) is also considered to reconceptualize the public spaces of KDTMs in Hanoi.

Socio-cultural direction in the social service of elderly citizens

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svetlana Nikolaevna Ispulova
Keyword(s):  
Social Service ◽  
Day Care ◽  
Leisure Activities ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Cultural Work ◽  
Technical Equipment ◽  
Care Department ◽  
Medical Institutions ◽  
The Social

The article presents the experience of socio-cultural work with elderly citizens in the conditions of a complex social service center, as well as the results of an empirical study conducted by the author, aimed at identifying the satisfaction rate of elderly citizens with leisure activities in the day care department. As a result, it was determined that the quality of services provided during the stay in the day care department is rated as high by the clients, which allows asserting the professionalism of the staff working with them; the clients tend to prefer those types of services that are aimed at maintaining health and well-being; the clients are satisfied with the material and technical equipment of the day care department; the clients want to see new types of services in the day care department and are ready to pay for them additionally. These services include going on excursions outside the city, lectures by specialists from medical institutions on various topics related to the health of the elderly and disabled, visiting the cinema, visiting the theater.

scholarly journals Psychosocial problems, chronic illness and welfare service utilization among elderly population in urban areas of Vijayapur, Karnataka

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (8) ◽  
pp. 3383
Author(s):  
Vidya V. Patil ◽  
Rekha Udgiri
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Illness ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Psychosocial Problems ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Welfare Services ◽  
Medical College ◽  
Field Practice

Background: Aging is a universal process. In India, the elderly account for 7.7% of the total population and the United Nations defines a country as “ageing” where the proportion of people over 60 years reaches 7.7%. Morbidity among elderly has an important influence on their physical functioning and psychological well-being. The objectives of the study were to assess the psychosocial problems associated with the elderly and to describe the chronic illness and utilization of welfare services among elderly.Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in the urban field practice area of Shri B M Patil Medical College, Vijayapur. House to house survey was conducted for a period of 3 months from September to November 2014.Results: Total of 372 elders were interviewed, 54.5% were males, 45.4% were females. Majority were Hindus 78.8%. 46% were illiterate. Majority 79% were financially dependent. 53% were working. Around 32% were feeling lonely Most common chronic illness is joint pain (66.66%), visual problem (50%), dental and chewing problem (48%).Conclusions: Financial dependence was high among the participants and majorities were suffering from one or the other chronic illness which needs attention and knowledge about geriatric welfare services should be given. 

scholarly journals A Study of the Understated Violence Within Social Contexts Against Adolescent Girls

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 29-41
Author(s):  
Shivangi Nigam ◽  
Niranjana Soperna
Keyword(s):  
Adolescent Girls ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Individual

Violence against women is linked to their disadvantaged position in the society. It is rooted in unequal power relationships between men and women in society and is a global problem which is not limited to a specific group of women in society. An adolescent girl’s life is often accustomed to the likelihood of violence, and acts of violence exert additional power over girls because the stigma of violence often attaches more to a girl than to the  perpetrator. The experience of violence is distressing at the individual emotional and physical level. The field of research and programmes for adolescent girls has traditionally focused on sexuality, reproductive health, and behaviour, neglecting the broader social issues that underpin adolescent girls’ human rights, overall development, health, and well-being. This paper is an endeavour to address the understated or disguised form of violence which the adolescent girls experience within the social contexts. The parameters exposed under this research had been ignored to a large extent when it comes to studying the dimension of violence under the social domain. Hence, the researchers attempted to explore this camouflaged form of violence and discovered some specific parameters such as: Diminished Self Worth and Esteem, Verbal Abuse, Menstruation Taboo and Social Rigidity, Negligence of Medical and Health Facilities and Complexion- A Prime Parameter for Judging Beauty. The study was conducted in the districts of Haryana (India) where personal interviews were taken from both urban and rural adolescent girls (aged 13 to 19 years) based on  a structured interview schedule. The results revealed that the adolescent girls, both in urban as well as rural areas were quite affected with the above mentioned issues. In urban areas, however, due to the higher literacy rate, which resulted in more rational thinking, the magnitude was comparatively smaller, but the difference was still negligible.  

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document