Joint perspectives

Interview with Luciana Castro Gonçalves a research professor specialising in collaborative innovation at ESIEE Paris and Sylvie Dhalleine, former director of the Maison des Ainés et des Aidants Paris Ouest.

Luciana Castro Gonçalves : With CAPACité, our goal was to provide some answers to the societal challenge of ageing well, which is a “pernicious issue”. Like climate change, it is a complex, evolving and multidimensional issue that cannot be resolved by a single, definitive answer. Taking an interest in how older people see the inclusive city can help us to identify new solutions that are better adapted to the needs and perspectives of all generations.

Sylvie Dhalleine : Sharing the city, making it accessible and inclusive must become real topics for discussion, because today’s cities are not suited to people with “difficulties”. Damaged pavements, other traffic on pavements, insufficient urban furniture - such as public toilets and benches - and inaccessible public transport are all obstacles to inclusiveness in cities. As well as an accessible city, senior citizens also want a less dense, safer city, where everyday services and spaces dedicated to them are close at hand.

The most important goal of an inclusive city is to combat isolation, which has many consequences, particularly on the health of the elderly. It generates a risk of depression, of people slipping through the cracks, addiction, Diogenes syndrome, neglect, and even increases the risk of early death.

Luciana Castro Gonçalves : older people are cautious. Our partners first gave us access to this audience and reassured them about our research work. They also provided us with a wealth of knowledge in our research fields, on seniors and ageing well in the city. Their expertise helped to organise the project, particularly the individual interviews. In particular, they stressed the importance of looking at people’s backgrounds. For example, someone who has travelled a lot will have a different view of ageing than someone who has had little mobility in their life. It was also our partners who suggested exploring an approach by gender, one of the factors we want to explore further in the future.

Sylvie Dhalleine : It’s a project I would like to see repeated, because it has given older people a voice on a subject that concerns them directly. This rarely happens, even though they are an incredibly rich source of information. I hope that the ideas put forward by CAPACité will be taken further: research is important if we want to improve the living conditions of senior citizens.

Luciana Castro Gonçalves : We now have a better understanding of how ageing is perceived by older people. In fact, there is not just one type of ageing, but several, depending on people’s backgrounds, their attachment to the city, whether or not they take part in activities, their gender, age, etc. The project also enabled us to adapt the design thinking approach to senior citizens by identifying the factors that facilitate their participation in the process of co-constructing innovation. This is an underexplored area of innovation management research. We noted, for example, that their ability to provide solutions seems to be more pronounced in the intergenerational workshop with students.