ROSEnet Expert Forum: Social Spatial Exclusion in Old Age - Regional, National and European Perspectives

Processes of social marginalisation and exclusion in old age show up in socio-spatial terms. The development of residential neighbourhoods, urban and rural regions can promote exclusion or help to avoid it, especially by enabling participation in society and access to resources. The perception of processes of socio-spatial exclusion in old age and the assessment of their significance vary. At the political levels of municipalities, regions, nations and the EU, as well as in academia, various socio-spatial approaches to analysing and dealing with the problem are therefore being discussed.
ROSEnet(Reducing Old-Age Exclusion in Europe) is an innovative network of researchers, stakeholders and older people from a total of 41 countries, funded by the COST Association, which aims to bridge the gap between research and (political, economic, social, societal and spatial) action and to reduce the exclusion of older people throughout Europe.
Almost 50 experts from academia and practice discussed and evaluated current approaches to analysing and overcoming socio-spatial exclusion in old age in an open and interdisciplinary manner. The expert forum offered the various actors a lot of space to contribute new impulses and to further develop the debate.
In small groups, they worked on the topics of diversity/ biography, space, power and control as well as concepts of inclusion and exclusion.
Prof. Dr. Thomas Scharf (Newcastle University) also presented and discussed with the interested audience research results from Great Britain on the topic "Between inclusion and exclusion in old age: European perspectives on the significance of social space" .