Thematic sessions

The Symposium proposes discussions on the phenomenon of ageing population  in the globalized world characterized by huge inequalities between groups, countries and nations. The idea is to bring researchers, academics and professionals to discuss guidelines on how to design healthy, age-friendly cities. The thematic sessions, in which the participants can register their works are:

1. Memory, Identity, and Sense of Place
Coordinator: Dr Adriana Portella.

This thematic session seeks to integrate the studies that begin from the understanding that people’s quality of life and  satisfaction with places in which they live do not only depend on physical issues of the environment, but are mainly related to memories and  identity of neighborhoods and urban spaces built through sense of place. Sense of place is a concept that relates to the meaning that people add to space, differentiating a place from another by its emotional and cognitive meanings. Often, these meanings are related to people who have lived in a certain place, to encounters in a public space or simply to memories of a past childhood.

2. Health, Welfare, and Environment
Coordinator: Dr Eduardo Rocha.

This thematic session focuses on the development of studies and solutions towards health care, in a multi, inter and transdisciplinary context. It aims to improve the quality of human life and well-being; integrated into urban or rural environments. This area also includes studies that discuss anthropic relationships and influences on modification and characteristics of the environment and their implications in the production of health-related issues and behaviours in different contexts and human groups.

3. Social Participation, Inclusion and Gender
Coordinator: Dr Ligia Maria Ávila Chiarelli

Even though it is essential the contribution of large investments in Elderly Health Care, there is an understanding of the need for other forms of protection and enforcement of the rights of elderly, making it possible for them to remain as active citizens in the definition of their lifes, their communities and even their country. In this thematic session, studies that emphasize ways of guaranteeing the inclusion of older adults in several fields, in  search for their self-realization, respect, and dignity, are expected. Also, contributions with suggestions for the development of public policies aimed at promoting the well-being of eldery or even criticisms on existing public policies in different contexts are welcome. In view of the most recent approaches of inclusion, the thematic session will also be supported by discussions on gender and ethnicity issues.

4. Universal Design and Accessibility
Coordinator: Dr Celina Maria Britto Correa.

This thematic session aims to understand and discuss the challenges that older adults faces to live in a society designed for the youth. Universal design, by the concept, refers to inclusion for all, through product, environment, and city accessible solutions to all ages and stages of life, sizes, and skills of all users. Universal design is determinant for change the paradigm in Architecture and Urbanism projects and in society because it leads to the democratization of public and private spaces. Without a doubt, environments free of physical barriers determine a greater possibility of access and participation, but accessibility also presupposes awareness of needs to guarantee autonomy, independence, and security in the use of all spaces, buildings, furniture and urban equipment. Everyone has the right to come and go; in this way, it is necessary the coexistence and the participation of people, respecting their differences. Thus, accessibility can be seen as the possibility or the ease way of reaching places that allow mobility, sociability, leisure, education, health, work for all. Accessibility is more than obedience to standards and building codes; it concerns the social inclusion, the right to reach and use the space, allowing each person to live with freedom and dignity.

5. Housing Challenges
Coordinator: Dr Nirce Saffer Medvedovski.

The right to housing is a social right that makes up the postulate of people’s dignity. This thematic session aims to answer the following questions: How is the guarantee of this right for the elderly population today? What public policies guarantee the full exercise of this right? And how do the scholars respond to the question of adequate housing for older adults? What are the needs and desires of elderly regarding to the materialization of this right? What are the relations of housing with people’s memory and identity? International and Brazilian studies have revealed that about 95% of people over 65 years old live in private units. How is the daily life of elderly resident in their homes, their neighbourhood and their city? What is the role of housing and neighbourhood in a process of healthy and active ageing in different urban and cultural contexts? This thematic session seeks to contribute to the issues raised by working with the different meanings that the dwelling for the third age.