Ageing, identity and place: Extending intersectional perspectives in age-friendly urbanism through the lived experiences of mid-older adults with intellectual disabilities and LGBT+ identities

Fang, ML, Sixsmith, J, Vytniorgu, R, Tai, J, Almack, K, Chadwick, D ORCID: 0000-0002-4963-0973, Buell, S, Makita, M, Thomas, B, Scrutton, P, Zhu, H and Cranwell, M (2026) Ageing, identity and place: Extending intersectional perspectives in age-friendly urbanism through the lived experiences of mid-older adults with intellectual disabilities and LGBT+ identities. Urban Studies. ISSN 0042-0980

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Abstract

The World Health Organization’s Age-Friendly Cities and Communities (AFCC) agenda promotes environments that support independence and participation in later life, yet affords limited attention to the relational and intersectional dimensions of belonging. Drawing on IncludeAge, a multisite study across Great Britain, this study explores how community inclusion and exclusion are experienced and negotiated by two groups often marginalised within age-friendly research and policy: mid-older adults (aged 40+) with intellectual disabilities (ID) and mid-older LGBT+ people. In doing so, it extends age-friendly urbanism through the intersectional place perspective (IPP). Guided by community-based participatory research principles, life-course interviews were conducted with 77 participants with ID and 76 LGBT+ participants, across urban, suburban and rural contexts. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic and narrative co-analysis informed by the IPP. Three themes were developed through collaborative analysis: (1) everyday spaces, micro-interactions and the making of belonging; (2) agency, resistance and claiming space; and (3) digital spaces as sites of connection, exposure and mistrust. Across both groups, belonging was negotiated relationally and unevenly across physical, social, service and digital domains. By foregrounding intersectionality, place and life-course trajectories, the study advances a more reflexive understanding of age-friendly urbanism. It extends the IPP within urban ageing debates, illuminates cumulative disadvantage and resilience, demonstrates the value of co-produced knowledge and proposes a conceptual theory of change to support a more intersectionally responsive AFCC agenda.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	intersectionality; Age-Friendly Cities and Communities; inclusive planning; place and belonging; life-course perspective; (sic)(sic)(sic); (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic); (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic); (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic); (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic); 4406 Human Geography; 4409 Social Work; 44 Human Society; Aging; Mental Health; 10 Reduced Inequalities; 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities; 1205 Urban and Regional Planning; 1402 Applied Economics; 1604 Human Geography; Urban & Regional Planning; 3304 Urban and regional planning; 4406 Human geography; 4407 Policy and administration
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races
Divisions:	Psychology (from Sep 2019)
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Date of acceptance:	7 August 2026
Date of first compliant Open Access:	9 November 2026
Date Deposited:	09 Nov 2026 13:57
Last Modified:	09 Nov 2026 13:57
DOI or ID number:	10.1177/00420980261492433
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/29849

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