Abstract China’s rapid aging has boosted demand for elderly care facilities (ECFs), yet their spatial equity is understudied. This study evaluates and optimizes ECFs accessibility in Dalian using an improved Gaussian two-step floating catchment area (G2SFCA) method, incorporating real-time road distances (via Gaode API) and elderly-specific travel thresholds. Compared to traditional 2SFCA, it addresses limitations like oversimplified Euclidean distance and homogeneous travel assumptions by accounting for distance decay and actual mobility patterns. The Maximum Accessibility Equality (MAE) model, optimized via Coefficient of Variation (CV) and Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD), minimizes spatial inequity through bed reallocation. The research findings are as follow: pre-optimization, 31% of sub-districts had low accessibility, which dropped to 14% post-optimization, with medium-accessibility areas rising to 76%. MAD-MAE achieved a 48.2% lower standard deviation (3.93 vs. CV-MAE’s 7.59). Strategies include reallocating 150 beds from oversupplied urban cores (Zhoushuizi District) to underserved peripheries (Ganjingzi District). This framework offers a scalable solution for equitable public facility allocation.

Abstract Intergenerational solidarity has been a widely discussed normative concept in debates on global crises and is considered essential for addressing these challenges in the future. The COVID-19 pandemic can be seen as a paradigmatic example and a stress test for the potential power of intergenerational solidarity during a crisis. While appeals for intergenerational solidarity gained momentum in media coverage, the emergence and recurrence of ageist stereotypes could be observed as well. However, research on the obvious tension between calls for intergenerational solidarity on the one hand and the resurge of ageist attitudes on the other is largely missing. Against this backdrop, this paper pursues two goals: first, to identify representations of age(ing) in pandemic-related newspaper coverage and to reconstruct how the category ‘age’ is inscribed in appeals for solidarity; and second, to examine how these representations frame intergenerational relations in such appeals in order to better understand the conceptualisation of solidarity as an intergenerational concept. Drawing on a qualitative content analysis of a comprehensive sample from three major German newspapers ( n = 149), we highlight that (stereotypical) representations of age(ing) and intergenerational relations have become relevant in three dimensions during the pandemic: the body and its physical ability, social participation, and the perception of social justice. Interpreting these empirical findings through the lens of poststructuralist theory of ageing, we highlight that these results point to a paradox of intergenerational solidarity: in appeals for intergenerational solidarity to counter age discrimination and promote intergenerational cohesion, ageist representations of age(ing) are (re)produced as binary oppositions based on the bisected construction of age and the rhetorical strategy of othering. We suggest that understanding this paradox and its structure provides a basis for developing alternative perspectives on the theoretical conceptualisation of intergenerational relations and solidarity to sustain it as a moral resource in impending crises beyond the pandemic.