A Belgian Case Study: Lack of Age-Friendly Cities and Communities Knowledge and Social Participation Practices in Wallonia

Abstract

The authors describe how Walloon government attempted to impulse an age-friendly cities and communities (AFCC) strategy in 2012 and how local actors reused the AFCC framework to meet their own understanding of senior's social participation. With a similar sociohistorical perspective as Chap. 11, the authors introduce the case by situating the existence of "municipality advisory councils of seniors" as a preexisting interest for social participation of older people. They then critically present the political Walloon appropriation of the WHO AFCC framework, insisting for example on the inadequate planned timing for consultations of older people. Based on empirical data’s from a qualitative study in 12 cities that received public funding to locally adopt the framework, the chapter describes the conduct of assessments of needs and resources as "a relatively disparate manner from one municipality to another, due to a lack of time, experience and interest." Nevertheless, it also presents administrative staff as potential "active aging intermediaries", i.e., actors who are concretely operationalizing a theoretical model of "active aging" into local practices and experiences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)