Introduction Portugal currently has one of the most aging populations in Europe. Aging is usually associated with increased inactivity, decreased physical capacity and a higher incidence of disease, all of which leads to a reduction in functional changes and, consequently, loss of independence. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that this population maintains a satisfactory level of physical and mental skills, emotional well-being and especially independence to perform day-to-day activities, and, to that end, measures are needed to promote health and allow a better quality of life. Objectives To verify if the physical fitness components are determinant for the health status of the elderly. Methodology A cross-sectional study was carried out on non-institutionalized elderly. For data collection, a questionnaire with sociodemographic data, the SF-12 questionnaire, to assess health status (physical and mental component), and the Senior Fitness Test (strength of lower and upper limbs, agility / balance, flexibility of the lower and upper limbs and cardiorespiratory fitness) to assess functional physical fitness were conducted. Results The sample is composed of 439 individuals, aged between 65 and 95 years old, mostly women. The set of physical fitness components: cardiorespiratory fitness, agility / balance, body mass index, lower and upper limb strength, explained by 35% of the variation in physical component from SF-12. The cardiorespiratory fitness and upper limb strength predict 9% of mental health status. Conclusion Some physical fitness components determine elderly health status, especially the physical dimension. Thus, for the elderly population the training of these components of the physical fitness is recommended in order to improve their health status.

While the remaining chapters in this book introduce and discuss a series of experiences in co-creation and participatory processes in the production of public spaces, this chapter intends to reflect on the appropriation and the production of public spaces from another aspect -that of the undesirables, those who are not wanted in the use of public spaces. By 'undesirable' is to be understood all those who, for different reasons, are not supposed to use -at least for a large amount of timea public space. The reasons for considering someone undesirable are diverse and often not explicit. Yet, this divide severely restricts social development and limits the understanding of publicness and of an urban society, which is undoubtedly becoming more and more diverse. For those considered "proper", such daily actions as using a public space are never questioned. Exclusion is a delicate issue, and thus probably no one will publicly recommend excluding the undesirables from public life; however, in fact, an increasing number of architectural elements are being put in place in order to restrict the accessibility and use of public spaces by certain citizens. And the decision to do so is an ambiguous one, as design aims at finding solutions that are effective from a user's perspective. This chapter argues that the production of public space, namely the idealized informality of open public space, is a continuation of the social conflicts present in normative space dynamics by renewed exclusion means and strategies.

A certain frenzy is still felt around the idea of what a Smart City is: for some, it is a concern, for others it is an open field of huge possibilities. Stemmed from the ubiquitousness of immersive computing in urban environments, and implemented by the coalescence between several media, a Smart City seems to promise aggregated efficiency among equipment, structures and individuals. On the flip side, a Smart City simultaneously appears to limit citizenship to a series of pre-established, induced or monitored movements, announcing a kind of voluntary surveillance. Inspired by some works, this paper attempts to provide a reflection upon the complex apparatus that a Smart City can be. Making use of an archaeological exercise, it addresses the community and its engagement in placemaking. As a network of people, architectures, tools and programmes a city has always been an informational field and the susceptible environment for commands, therefore of control. A Smart City might not be an invention, but rather the transformation of the old structures with new means and materialities. It is emerging as a result of the diffusion of digital technology in the physical space. Hence the question does not relay on the technology deployed, but rather in the programmatic character of the systems it installs. After all, in technology may lie the way to raise a politically active and sensitive community.

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This chapter develops an interest in clarifying the meaning of cyberparks through an interrogation beyond its material preconditions. A cyberpark, as a fold in space generated by a hybrid emergent form of co-mediated space, is a disjunctive combination: it presupposes an encounter between open public urban places and the use of ICT tools. Outstretched beyond its physical manifestation as a place of encounter, a «heterotopic» reading might reveal that the subject is displaced in many different ways, from the analogue to the digital landscape, and from the specificity of the local to the universal of the global web. It is in such transferences that several worlds blend, both in its symbolic function and social significance. Impacts of such «Other Spaces» on the nature of human being's behaviours can be critically reflected by the consideration of the social role of ICTs as tools of alienation through reinforced governances. Hence the question of creating «non-places» arouses, affording both a consensual appropriation process and the representative commodity networks, that henceforth includes natural, technical and human aspects and at the same time constitutes hybrid identities at the interfaces of its users, subjects, objects and places.