Understanding Age-Friendly Cities

Introduction

Earlier this month I participated in the 8th European Conference on Information Literacy (Ecil, 9-12 October 2023, Krakow Poland), which attracts specialists from round the world to share research and practice in the field of Information Literacy and discuss the implications for varied contexts. Contexts such as schools and universities, workplaces, health care, library and information services, digital practices, media education, Artificial Intelligence, governance, and the experiences of equity groups such as LGBQ+.In my case one of those contexts is population ageing and the position of older people in society, which I have written about with Craig Dalzell in our book All of Our Futures. This article is another slant on those themes and adds the concept of Information Literacy to the familiar territory of countering ageism and promoting inclusion in the life of our cities and communities.

What is Information Literacy?

If you are not familiar with Information Literacy here is a concise description:...the adoption of appropriate information behaviour to obtain, through whatever channel or medium, information well fitted to information needs, leading to wise and ethical use of information in society. (Johnston and Webber 2003).The description unpacks as: (i) a narrow conception expressed in terms of the techniques individuals and groups use to access sources, formulate searches, and select relevant information, irrespective of whether the information is in digital or other media forms; and (ii) a holistic conception referring to “wise and ethical use of information in society”, which expresses Information Literacy’s potential as a force for progressive change central to achieving social justice. Both conceptions of the term need to be on strategic agendas for education, employment, health care, and social change and should be explicit parts of life in an independent, democratic Scotland.

Cities, the state of ageing and lifestyle checks

My colleague Sheila Webber from the ISchool at Sheffield University and I presented: “The Age-Friendly Media and Information Literate (AFMIL) City Post Covid-19 “. Using sources from the World Health Organization (WHO 2017; 2021) we described how Ageism was intensified by the pandemic and how older people’s rights and experiences were impacted. We also described how established negative trends in health, housing, social care etc. have been exacerbated.To counter these negatives, we advocated Information Literacy as a constructive approach to improving older people’s agency in pursuit of better services and greater priority for their rights. We paired that notion with concepts of media drawing on the UNESCO (2019) statement on Media and Information Literate Cities. This statement implicates journalists, educators, librarians, academics, civic leaders, and activists in activities to improve community engagement through good information practices. We drew on the Centre for Ageing Better (2022) guide to conducting a local ‘state of ageing’ audit to illuminate the degree of priority attached to older people’s interests at local levels like cities. The guide provides a data-based approach using the domains from the WHO Age Friendly Environments paper (2017), including information and communication, to structure analysis and reporting.In essence we deployed a combined model of an Age Friendly Media and Information Literate (AFMIL) City to offer a complex and dynamic context for discussing Information Literacy amongst senior citizens. Older people are positioned at the heart of our model, and we relate their potential for agency to the typically ageist portrayal of ‘the elderly’ in the media, which militates against their rights and agency as citizens. Similarly, we illuminate their position as consumers, and we introduced the concept of older people as information creators, critics, and innovators.Older people’s agency can be supported by Information Literacy as described above and our city-focused model entails support and encouragement from city councils through planning and service mechanisms together with their influence on media practice. Local stakeholders including media outlets, libraries and educational institutions need to be part of city-wide initiatives to engage older people in creating more age friendly environments. However, we also suggest that it would be equally important to explore new forms of engagement for older people, including dedicated citizen’s assemblies and the introduction of independent think tanks focussed on older people’s issues.An information literate city would embrace and enhance these developments as part of the functions of local government and civic activity. For example, conducting a local ‘state of ageing’ review to engage older people and influence all aspects of provision, including countering ageism in media representations and service provision. At base these initiatives are founded on good information, which older people can use to create new information entities to influence decision making.We also advocated the introduction of programmes to develop individual ‘lifestyle checks’ for all age groups to enhance people’s control over their circumstances. This references chapter 9 of All Our Futures (Johnston and Dalzell, 2021). The ‘check’ involves extending individual agency beyond finance and health to entail the full range of social, economic, and civic aspects, and focusing social strategy on anticipating the needs of future generations. Key processes are: (i) self-evaluation; (ii) informed support and guidance; and (iii) practical interventions to implement any desired changes. The outcome could become a ‘passport’ to healthier ageing, enhanced lifestyle, better social and economic outcomes. All aspects of the ‘check’ rely on information in various forms and the capacity to apply it successfully.

Reactions and Connections

The folk attending our session recognised the impact of Covid from their own countries and were supportive of the idea that cities are valuable for countering ageism, whilst recognising that issues like climate change and cost of living pressures are dominating current municipal agendas. As you would expect from specialists the idea that Information Literacy had a part to play was uncontroversial.Other presentations at the conference dealt with ageing and Information Literacy. For example, a contribution from Iceland described the development of a personal health information system combing individual records, with links to general health advice, and reported results from research on older people’s responses. Contributions from colleagues in Sweden and Finland reported similar work on older people’s responses to eHealth services. A PhD student from Edinburgh Napier University presented on his research into “Developing User-Led Digital Literacies in Older Adults within Scottish Public Libraries”.

Why is Information Literacy Relevant to Common Weal?

Information is central to political economy as an economic resource, a factor in political decisions and a cultural resource for learning, employment, citizenship, and everyday life. Knowing how to find trustworthy information and apply it strategically is vital to counteracting misinformation, stereotyping and discrimination in the media and politics. Given Common Weal’s aim to make informed and effective contributions to constructive change in Scotland, leading eventually to independence, Information Literacy is a good match.In addition to my interest in the political economy of ageing, here are some potential contexts for Information Literacy:• Campaigning and workplace activism – the ways workers and campaigners obtain and use information to further their interests.• Health care and healthy ageing – how people engage with the NHS and find out about other wellbeing supports in their communities.• Local authority and community development initiatives.Well-developed information literacy is not widely distributed in society, comprising a patchwork of skills, practices, and experiences without a clear enough recognition of the whole. This is a brake on creating better informed understandings of how to organise, influence politics, and address social issues like ageism. So, supporting the development of Information Literacy in Scotland would be a positive step.In essence information literacy can drive efforts to change what needs to be changed, whether that is in the workplace, the community, or the constitutional future of Scotland. I think Robin McAlpine’s recent paper Direction, setting out a longer-term strategy for Independence, looks ripe for a discussion of the place of Information Literacy in the coming years of persuasion and campaigning. So, I will be looking at that more closely in the coming months.

Conclusion: Human Rights post pandemic

Although the pandemic may be fading from memory and disappearing from the headlines, we are in the period of public inquiries into the impact of the pandemic, how decisions to respond were taken, and how Covid policies were implemented. This process should illuminate what happened to older people and what lessons can be learned. Consequently, the inquiries will reveal a huge cache of information relevant to people’s rights in the future, making the inquiries an obvious context for applying Information Literacy in both senses of the description given above.

References

• Centre for Ageing Better. (2022). Guide: Developing a local State of Ageing report. https://ageing-better.org.uk/local-state-of-ageing-report• Johnston, B. & Dalzell, C. (2021). All of our futures; Scotland’s ageing population and what to do about it in 2021-2045. Common Weal.• UNESCO. (2019). Global framework for Media and Information Literacy cities (MIL Cities). Paris: UNESCO.• Webber, S., & Johnston, B. (2019). The Age-Friendly Media and Information Literate (#AFMIL) City: Combining policies and strategies for ageing populations in media and information rich societies. Journal Of Information Literacy, 13(2), 276-291.• World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe. (2017). Age-friendly environments in Europe: A handbook of domains for policy action. Copenhagen: WHO.• World Health Organization. (2021). Global report on ageism. Geneva: WHO.