Age-friendly cities and lifelong learning

This article investigates the modern phenomenon of age friendliness, more particularly the notion of an “age-friendly city,” from both a macro perspective as well as at the level of a localized application of age friendliness in a single city. Much of the rhetoric of age-friendly conceptualization has strong affinity to the themes of lifelong learning, and proponents of each sector can benefit from mutually understanding the respective principles and implementation strategies of the other. Allied concepts of aging (“growing older”) and active aging are discussed before discussion of the main discourses of lifelong learning. A case study of an age-friendly city in New Zealand is presented wherein achievements and challenges are discussed; an argument is presented that as “close cousins,” actors within these two domains can enhance the application of their humanistic principles by closer alignment of policy and practices. Further, challenges ahead for implementation of age friendliness are discussed, some of which are shared by the lifelong learning movement.