REVIEW article
Front. Med.
Sec. Geriatric Medicine
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1613587
This article is part of the Research TopicUrban AgingView all 6 articles
Urban Environments' Impacts on Ageing in Post-Industrial Cities: Reviewing the Pathways to Healthy Ageing
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Suffolk, Ipswich, United Kingdom
- 2University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, Scotland, United Kingdom
- 3Politecnico di Bari, Bari, Puglia, Italy
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Post-industrial cities are characterized by an ageing population, deteriorating urban infrastructure, and a range of socio-environmental challenges, including pollution, economic decline, and out-migration.These conditions, alongside the legacies of industrial decline, make ageing in such environments considered particularly challenging when studied through the lens of conventional analytical frameworks such as active ageing and age-friendly cities and communities (AFCC). By examining the literatures critically and analysing unique spatial and social features of the environment of postindustrial cities, the paper expands the discussion regarding the impacts of environments on the healthy ageing process within a post-industrial context. Based on 42 selected articles as evidence in exploring association of healthy ageing and post-industrial built environment, this review implies that despite the negative perceptions, post-industrial city and community's strong social networks within their longestablished communities identities hold untapped potential to play positive roles in the pathways to healthy ageing. This fresh perspective challenge prevailing assumptions on ageing in post-industrial cities, offering a more nuanced understanding of the strengths and opportunities inherent in postindustrial contexts for supporting the healthy ageing of elderly residents.
Keywords: Healthy Ageing, urban environment, age-friendly cities, and communities, active ageing, Post-Industrialization
Received: 17 Apr 2025; Accepted: 25 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhao, Spada and Bortone. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hongsheng Zhao, University of Suffolk, Ipswich, United Kingdom
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