Smart and Age-Friendly Communities in Poland. An Analysis of Institutional and Individual Conditions for a New Concept of Smart Development of Ageing Communities

Abstract

In the face of the dynamic ageing of local communities, smart cities and smart villages programs should seek to ensure meeting the needs of the elderly and promoting solutions tailored to their computer literacy, digital skills, and perception capabilities. In this context we propose to approach local smart and age-friendly communities initiatives in a way that would provide responses to two contemporary megatrends: digitalization and demographic transition. We assumed that the deployment of such initiatives in local planning and governance depends on at least two conditions: demand for smart everyday products and services represented by older adults and the perspective of the local decision-makers. The paper aims to examine whether the smart city/smart village idea focused on meeting the needs of the elderly and seeking to shape age-friendly local communities and the environment could be implemented in the municipalities in Poland. The analysis of the elderly Poles’ capabilities to absorb the ICT solutions demonstrated that the smart and age-friendly community approach may face implementation difficulties, especially in the oldest groups of the Polish rural population. Results of the quantitative study conducted in 1236 municipalities revealed that local authorities perceive local policy goals, such as pursuing smart and age-friendly development as low priority ones. A citizen-centered approach of village heads and mayors to the local policy is critical for integrating these two priorities of being smart and age-friendly.

Age-Friendly Cities and Communities: State of the Art and Future Perspectives

“…A commentary by Marston et al [27] described and presented the existing Blue Zones ® checklists and set out initial thoughts and explorations relating to the checklists. Additionally, Marston and colleagues discussed the two age-friendly frameworks by the WHO [1] as well as by Marston and van Hoof [19], and discussed the current gaps associated to the current Blue Zones ® checklists. This commentary presented a series of recommendations for a roadmap to be considered by scholars, in conjunction with various industrial and third sector actors, to consider alternative and innovative approaches moving into the 21st century.…”

“…The WHO published a report in 2018 [ 18 ] with the subtitle “ Looking back over the last decade, looking forward to the next ”, in which technology is explicitly mentioned as a support for age-friendly environments. In 2019, Marston and van Hoof [ 19 ] presented a critique of the WHO’s Age-Friendly Cities and Communities model, as technology is not explicitly considered in this model. Their paper discusses the gaps in the WHO’s framework in the field of technology and provides insights and recommendations for expansion of the model for application in the context of countries with a high human development index (HDI) that wish to be fully age-friendly.…”

“…The following nine papers dealt with technological solutions and ageing built on the foundations laid out by Marston and van Hoof [ 19 ], who laid down the importance of technology and digitalisation as a third pillar for age-friendly cities and communities. Aspects of use-friendly and sustainable design, technology acceptance, and aspects of implementation and needs of carers were all acknowledged in the following contributions [ 8 , 9 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 ].…”

“…Although we need to create future smart age-friendly ecosystems to meet these needs, technology still does not feature in the WHO eight domains of an age-friendly city. This paper expands upon Marston and van Hoof’s [ 19 ] ‘Smart Age-friendly Ecosystem’ (SAfE) framework, and explores how digital technology, design hacking, and research approaches can be used to understand a smart age-friendly ecosystem in a postpandemic society. By exploring a series of case studies and using real-life scenarios from the standpoint of COVID-19, the authors proposed the ‘Concept of Age-friendly Smart Ecologies (CASE)’ framework.…”

Smart and Age-Friendly Cities in Romania: An Overview of Public Policy and Practice

“…In relation to advancing age-friendly interventions, the WHO touches upon the collaboration with transnational (city) networks, such as smart cities networks, for which addressing ageing will help advance their strategic priorities [ 9 ]. Podgórniak-Krzykacz et al [ 18 ] also called for smart cities to seek to ensure meeting the needs of older citizens and promoting solutions tailored to their computer literacy, digital skills, and perception capabilities. A similar trend was also seen by Woolrych et al [ 19 ] in relation to emerging technologies for the support of health and independence of senior citizens.…”