Public defence: Gustavo Sugahara

Ageing and urbanization bring major consequences and implications to all facets of human life. We see changes not only in terms of population structure and location, but also in living arrangements, family composition and family relations, economic dynamics in terms of growth, savings, investment and consumption, labour markets, pensions, taxation and intergenerational transfers, health and health care, housing and migration, voting patterns and representation, etc.

These changes also affect social policy in general and social work in particular. Partly this is simply due to broader population dynamics, such as the concentration of people in metropolitan areas. Partly it is because the kinship ties and spousal situation in cities differ, in terms of both extent and proximity.

Thus far, however, little discussion exists about the diversity and particularities of the urban ageing phenomenon, how it affects and is affected by public policies, and implications for the construction of old age and the reconfiguration of the life-course structure.

This thesis critically examines some of the particular characteristics of age in cities in light of a concrete case study, the city of Oslo, asking: How could the particular characteristics of the ageing process in Oslo become the objects of specific social policy response?

The research results arising from this thesis brought robust evidence for the need for specific social policy response to the ageing process in Oslo. First of all, the research showed that ignorance about the historical data led to a misconception about the current demographic change in Oslo.

It might also have resulted in a lost opportunity of learning from that experience. Oslo’s districts not only contribute differently to the current demographic profile, but also had developed differently in terms of population structure during the last decades.

Finally, the prevalence of older women in Oslo with particular characteristics in terms of kinship availability should also have an impact on policy design beyond the typical headcount approach.

Three articles

The body of the dissertation consists of three articles. Paper 1 departs from the unpacking of an apparently simple question: Is Oslo getting older? This question was the starting point to highlight the importance of demographic information to city planning. I use the city of Oslo as an example of the variety of approaches that can be used to assess ageing in a specific population.

Paper 2 is a comparative analysis in which we use data from the Norwegian population registers to investigate if patterns of population ageing differ across the country. Again, despite the great role and focus on chronological age, the main focus of the paper was the relational aspect. We focused on the kinship relationships from an “availability” point of view, in our case, location. Starting out from a discussion of long-term demographic trends, the paper hypothesizes that family and kinship ties vary between regions. The hypothesis was indeed confirmed.

Paper 3 focused on Oslo’s translation for the World Health Organization Age-friendly cities and communities (AFCC) framework. As the leading global policy addressing ageing issues in urban environments, the AFCC framework is perhaps the best available source to take the pulse of Oslo’s macro-influence on the construction of ageing.