The age divide: CPC in ESRC Society Now magazine

A feature article on Albert Sabater, Elspeth Graham and Nissa Finney's research has been published in the winter 2018 issue of ESRC Society Now magazine.

Their work on residential age segregation has found evidence that their is increasing separation of where older and younger adults live in England and Wales: since the 1990s neighbourhoods have become less age mixed. The article discusses how housing debates have almost entirely ignored residential age segregation as one of the potential consequences of the ongoing housing affordability crisis, and argues that age segregation is something that should be considered more carefully, particularly if it indicates that people are unable to access the housing that they need.

"The potential socio-spatial consequences of increasing age segregation are considerable. When we have a situation that means many young people aren't able to access desired housing, this can affect other aspects of life, such as starting a family and employment opportunities," says Dr Sabater. "Added to this, when older and younger people live separately, the reduced inter-generational interaction could threaten social cohesion. It is not only likely to be reducing cross-age interactions outside the family but also has substantial implications in terms of socio-political change, including competition between age groups for limited public resources to support the interests, agendas, services, and institutions that best meet age-specific needs."

The feature article follows on from the recently published CPC Briefing Paper 45 '(Un)Affordable housing and the residential separation of age groups' where you can read find out more about the research findings, as well as reading more on this and other CPC research on 'Relations between the young and old' in our latest newsletter, Changing Populations.

Watch Dr Sabater give a talk on 'Socio-spatial dynamics between younger and older adults in contemporary societies' for the BBVA Foundation and Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in May 2018.


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Posted 22/01/2019 10:59