Return to MorphologyReturn to Morphology

Ageing and planning

The ageing of the western worldAustralian ageing statistics

Aged care and housingUncertain futures

Age by Sex Pyramid Kingborough LGA 1996

-6.00 -4.00 -2.00 0.00 2.00 4.00 6.00

0-4

10-14

20-24

30-34

40-44

50-54

60-64

70-74

80-84

90 plus

Age

Coh

orts

Percentage of Total Persons

Females

Males

Kingborough-youth dependency ratio 1986-1996

37.00

38.00

39.00

40.00

41.00

42.00

43.00

44.00

45.00

46.00

1986 1991 1996

0-14 year olds

Kingborough-aged dependency ratios 1986-1996

12.50

13.00

13.50

14.00

14.50

15.00

15.50

16.00

16.50

1986 1991 1996

65+ years

Ageing and planning

• The ability of elderly persons to adapt and thrive is contingent upon their physical health, personality, earlier life experiences and the societal support they receive in the way of adequate finances, shelter, medical care, social roles and vocation. These critical latter forces of societal support depend not only on older people themselves but on the rest of society committing resources to this end … The demographic changes of the next two decades will place more pressure on society for this commitment than has been the case at any time in our history, and it represents a most significant challenge (Hugo 1986, 187).

Ageing and planning• Statistics

– 1950 200 million +

– 1980 375 million

– 2000 est. 590 million

– 2025 est. 1.1 billion (224% increase over 1975)

– aging in LDCs in new millennium: likely to increase by 77% in first 50 years of 21C compared 30% in MDCs

– in Australia population aged 60+ is rising at 2.5% per annum whereas total population rising by only 1.5% per annum

– proportions• 60-64 up 49.1%

• 65-69 up 35.4%

• 80-84 up 18.9%

• 85+ up 35.6%

Ageing and planning– most of the old old are women and of these, 60% live

alone– only 29% of men in the 75+ bracket are in the same

position– women outnumber men 2:1 in the 60-65 age bracket, and

3.25:1 in the 85+ bracket– young dependency ratio (c. 32/100) will remain higher

than aged dependency ratio (c.18/100)– as many as 40% of elderly people will become disabled

and with due to low fixed incomes as many as 75% vulnerable to homelessness or shift to aged care (issue of standards of care)

– spatial dimensions• sunbelt developments - aged populations may double

Race and multiculturalismRace and multiculturalism

• Identity

• Difference

• Politics of representation

• Hegemony and resistance

• Socially constructed

• Creating a social imaginary and imaginary communities

• The challenges of racism and xenophobia

• Racism a universal response to – The construction of

sameness and difference

– Processes of colonization and colonialism

Racial inequality is deeply linked to the development of cities and regions. How? Why?

– Pluralistic harmony– Identity seen as the assemblage of customs, practices,

meanings, an enduring heritage and set of shared traits and experiences

– Severely problematic because it focuses on superficial expressions of culture

– Measures difference from English culture

OUTRAGED: A woman confronts a police officer in New York. She is protesting the fatal police shooting last month of a black

immigrant. (SUZANNE PLUNKETT/AP)

AustralianAustralianexamplesexamples

Redfern

Ashfield

Port Adelaide

Box Hill

Lakemba

... and planning... and planning

• (As a negotiated act among politicians, planners and related professionals, developers …)

• Planning both affects and gives effect to:– distribution, – dispersion, – dissimilarity, – segregation, and – the constitution of difference and

status