IN-PERSON Manchester Livable Cities
Abstract
Social isolation and spatial exclusion amongst older adults are associated with a range of detrimental social and health outcomes for individuals and communities. Third places, broadly defined as physical and virtual places that exist apart from home and workplaces, can be significant sites for countering isolation and exclusion. Research to date often neglects how older adults enact agency through everyday participation to create and sustain third places, as well as how such places can also be sites of exclusion. This critical ethnographic study aimed to deepen understanding of how everyday participation in a range of activities, termed occupations, is central within processes of (re)creating third places in later life, as well as dynamics of inclusion and exclusion in such places. Occupational mapping, photo elicitation interviews, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 retirees in two different urban contexts to address the (re)production and contributions of third places, as well as barriers and facilitators to inclusion. Data were analyzed using an abductive approach informed by critical and transactional understandings of place and occupation. Findings highlight the central role of older adults’ participation in occupations, particularly collective occupations, in connecting with, creating, and sustaining the social fabric of diverse third places. Findings also address how power relations tied to intersecting social positions constrain possibilities for participation and inclusion in third places. Knowledge generated points to ways forward in working with older adults and other placemaking partners to cultivate inclusive third places through everyday participation.
Debbie Laliberte Rudman is a Distinguished University Professor at the School of Occupational Therapy, Western University in London, Canada. She employs critical qualitative approaches and social theories to examine how the everyday participation, or occupation, of collectives, particularly groups who experience social and economic marginalization, is situated with socio-cultural, spatial, political, economic and historical conditions. Her scholarship aims to raise awareness of, disrupt, and reconfigure conditions that perpetuate social, spatial, and health inequities.
Rebecca Aldrich is a Professor of Clinical Occupational Therapy at the Mrs. T. H. Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at the University of Southern California. Her research explores how multifaceted human and non-human elements influence the shape of everyday life in situations of social marginalization. In particular, her research aims to illuminate how assumptions underlying sociopolitical and institutional structures and strategies do or do not align with the realities of everyday life.
Colleen McGrath, an Associate Professor in the School of Occupational Therapy at Western University, is a leading Canadian researcher studying the occupational needs of older adults experiencing age-related vision loss (ARVL; including macular degeneration, glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy). Situated in critical theoretical approaches, including critical gerontology and disability studies, her research adopts a qualitative approach, often utilizing participatory methods of data collection. Her work aims to highlight the influence of the environment on the occupational participation of older adults aging with, and into, vision loss.
Carri Hand is an Associate Professor in the School of Occupational Therapy at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. Her research explores older adults’ inclusion and exclusion within social connectedness, community participation, and engagement in everyday activities in their neighbourhoods. Through her research she seeks to develop innovative strategies to promote equitable, age-inclusive communities, using approaches such as participatory action research, qualitative methods, geospatial techniques, and survey research.
1:30 pm - 3:00 pm
Wednesday 17th June, 2026