When Ageing in Place Becomes Conditional: Climate and Structural Stress in Rural Contexts

While "ageing in place" is strongly promoted as a positive and cost-effective solution to address the challenges posed by population ageing, particularly in rural settings, it is now being supported by the redistribution of responsibilities, rather than institutional support, in the context of service withdrawal, infrastructural vulnerability, and escalating pressures related to climate and structural changes. The current frameworks provide limited guidance on the impact of governance on the reliability of access to care, mobility, and basic services, particularly in the context of disruption. The current study reconceptualizes "ageing in place" as a "governance-mediated and structurally conditioned" process. The study uses a conceptual approach to "ageing in place" informed by the principles of spatial justice to examine the interplay between rural service withdrawal, vulnerable care and mobility infrastructures, and impacts related to climate change, to create differential and conditional patterns of access. In this respect, the study moves the analysis beyond proximity-based understandings of "ageing in place" to the reliability of access. The study shows that "ageing in place" is not a fixed or value- neutral concept, but is a differential and contingent process mediated by governance and infrastructural support. The study therefore suggests a move beyond proximity-based approaches to "ageing in place" to a new set of governance frameworks to support the reliability of access to care, mobility, and basic infrastructural support. In this respect, the study offers a new spatial justice-informed analysis of "ageing in place," rural inequalities, and impacts related to climate change. The findings have direct implications for current planning and policy frameworks to support reliable, coordinated, and equitable access in rural and peripheral settings.

کلیدواژه ها:

Ageing in place ، Conditional access ، Rural inequality ، Climate stress ، Spatial justice ، Governance