Recap: project seminar about urban ageing and mobility transitions

On September 8th, 2023 the GRATET research group (Territorial Analysis and Tourism Studies) organised a scientific seminar about urban mobility transitions and age-inclusion in Barcelona.
“The simultaneity of the demographic transition, deepening urbanisation, a technological revolution, frequent shocks brought on by health and climate emergencies mean that we need to plan for an older and more urban future” (Das et al., 2022, p.2; cited by S Yarker)

The seminar represents a scientific event of the ENTOURAGE project, awarded to the Universitat Rovira I Virgili, which has studied the transformations and impediments to urban mobility in cities with high tourist attraction, and their effects on the inclusion of the older population. The event also featured additional academic interventions by experts on topics related to urban ageing, tourism and mobility in the city of Barcelona and beyond. This programme is the fruit of a collective effort between the ENTOURAGE project, its partners, and other ongoing or recently completed research projects.

After the opening words of ENTOURAGE’s principal investigator Prof Antonio Paolo Russo, we dived deeper into the relevance of population ageing in current discussions about urban transitions. Guest speaker Dr Sophie Yarker provided the opening keynote titled “Urban Ageing: A Spatial Justice Approach”, which introduced us to the need to create cities that are good places for people to grow older using a spatial justice approach. Dr Yarker is a Research Fellow in Sociology at the University of Manchester and the Co-Deputy Director of the Manchester Urban Ageing Research Group (MUARG), the group which acted as secondment partner throughout the development of the ENTOURAGE project.

The second part of the seminar provided an overview of the main results of the ENTOURAGE project, focusing on the active mobility experience of older adults in tourist cities. The presentation was divided into three parts: a conceptual background that links urban ageing with mobility transitions and touristification, project results about tourism impacts on later life mobilities and results about the uses and experiences of cycling mobility in Barcelona. The results about cycling in Barcelona included a conversation with Ester Castejón, study participant and cycling YouTuber, who shared her first-hand experience of learning and maintaining cycling in the city of Barcelona.

The third part of the seminar included highlights of ongoing research in the field of social inclusion in a variety of urban transitions in Barcelona, showing the key messages and recommendations for academic research and for policy. The presentations by four Barcelona-based experts drew important lines between ENTOURAGE project and wider urban challenges, such as isolation and immobility, urban vitality, mobilities of care, and digital inclusion. These contributions are the fruit of the collaborations between ENTOURAGE and other research projects, such as VISITMOB (led by URV) and GRANBCN (led by UAB). We had the pleasure to hear the following four presenters:

Dr Núria Font, Postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra and profesora asociada at the University of Barcelona. Presentation on GRANBCN: Social isolation and loneliness among older people.
Zeynep Sila Akinci, PhD researcher at GEMOTT (Research Group for Mobility, Transport and Territory) at the Department of Geography of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Presentation on Active Aging through Urban Environments: Exploring walkability, public spaces, and urban vitality in supporting older adults’ outdoor activities.
Dr Carmen Mendoza Arroyo, Assistant director and associate professor in the School of Architecture at the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya & Head of the Urban Design and Planning Department. Presentation on Mobility of care and its struggles in touristic cities: the case of Barcelona based on the VISITMOB project.
Dr Fiammetta Brandajs, Postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Tourism and Geography and the research group GRATET of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili. Presentation on Predictive Simulation Models for Inclusive Mobility and Social Integration in the Digital Era.