Die Konzentration von Altersarmut in der StadtLandschaft – Probleme und Handlungsbedarfe

Abstract

This article considers the consequences of two crucial and compounded societal trends: demographic aging and social polarization. The aim of the article is to connect the discussions that surround the spatial implications of demographic change with prevailing debates on social exclusion. Of particular concern is whether a spatial concentration of elderly poverty may be monitored at all and, in turn, whether the consequences of spatial concentration stand in direct correlation to the development of neighbourhoods or cities as a whole. Recent studies on the topic indicate that a concentration of people that are both elderly and poor can be predicted for specific urban areas. Since it is impossible to establish the appropriateness of the living environments of certain population groups as an objective fact (but only as the result of social construction processes) the judgement on these observations remains ambivalent. Although a number of negative consequences resulting from the spatial concentration of elderly poverty prove identifiable, there is little evidence of a direct connection between spatial concentration, perceptions of affected neighborhoods by local residents, and the quality of residents’ living conditions. While the goal of social policy should remain the elimination of elderly poverty altogether, the existing opportunities that the urban areas in question offer its residents should neither be overlooked, nor underestimated.