Social Structures
Symposium
Author: Matthew McKenna, PhD Researcher at Maynooth University’s Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute , Research Funded through the Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI) Centre for Research Training in Advanced Networks for Sustainable Societies (ADVANCE CRT)
Friday December 3rd 2021 will witness the announcement of the winning contending cities for the 12th ‘EU Access City Awards Ceremony’ (Access City Award 2022).
The website of the European Commission (EC) says that the ‘Access City Award recognises and celebrates a city’s willingness, ability and efforts to become more accessible, in order to:
- Guarantee equal access to fundamental rights;
- Improve the quality of life of its population and ensure that everybody – regardless of age, mobility or ability – has equal access to all the resources and pleasures cities have to offer’.
The United Nations (UN) Department of Economic and Social Affairs says that ‘Persons living with disabilities are often the poorest and most vulnerable in cities today’. Cities in the twenty-first century are experiencing rapid growth, as populations shift from rural dwellings to urban areas in search of employment and greater economic prosperity. However, increased costs of living alongside inaccessible urban planning, transport infrastructure and urban architecture, render most cities inaccessible and inundated with hazards for persons with disabilities. Furthermore, cities around the world are experiencing rapid gentrification and rising costs of living, thereby increasing the socio-economic disadvantages that are often experienced by persons with disabilities as a vulnerable demographic.
Although remote working and increased employment prospects in the cyber domain have arguably aided developed countries in fostering further occupational opportunities and rights for persons with disabilities, such initiatives are still in their infancy and are largely confined to the most economically developed states. In the contemporary era, cities around the planet are largely representative of the concept of the ‘disabling city’ as discussed by Worth et al., (2017). Increased expense alongside socio-political marginalisation often leads to the exclusion of persons with disabilities from cultural, economic, political and personal life. The ethos of ‘nothing about us without us’ is even more difficult for persons with disabilities to achieve when the design of cities is almost universally hostile, marginalizing, and hazardous to their person.
The EC provides an overview of the values that underpin the Access City Award by describing it as a ceremony for, ‘recognising cities that have worked to become more accessible for their citizens. It is an EU initiative that:
- Recognises efforts by cities to become more accessible
- Promotes equal access to urban life for people with disabilities
- Allows local authorities to promote and share their best practices’
In addition to the ableist architecture of global cities, ableism often intersects with ageism in city life as urban renewal and regeneration projects, leading to rising costs and increased gentrification, often result in older adults, including older adults with disabilities, falling below the poverty line. This threatens the ability of older adults to ‘age in-place’ in an environment where they may have spent their entire lives. Rapid technological progress and the exponential growth of high-tech and computational industries over the past decades has led to increasing levels of marginalisation and unfamiliarity with changes to urban dwelling among a significant proportion of older adults. On 29th September 2019, the ‘United Nations Independent Expert on the Enjoyment of all Human Rights by Older Persons’, Rosa Kornfeld-Matte, said:
Commonplace modalities and trajectories of urban development are often decided by economic requirements in the form of accommodating big businesses, heavy goods traffic, tourism, rapid mobility and regular transport for millions of people; profit and business comprise the historic approach that engenders traditional urban development. The EC provides the following definition of a ‘Smart City’:
‘A smart city is a place where traditional networks and services are made more efficient with the use of digital solutions for the benefit of its inhabitants and business’.
The future of urban development and the advent of the Smart City has brought humanity to the cusp of a new epoch, but it is only through inclusivity and an emphasis on a human-centred approach that cities will become fully inclusive of all persons, irrespective of age or disability. It is imperative that the principle of ‘nothing about us without us’ underpins the future of urban planning and development alongside the creation of Smart Cities. As national policies diverge among the community of nations for innumerate reasons across the globe on such measures, it is essential that bodies of international agency such as the UN, EU and civil society organisations help to achieve a high standard of uniformity and concordance on the key understanding that smart cities of the future will be wholly inclusive of all persons, irrespective of age or disability. As UN Secretary General, António Guterres, said on World Cities Day on October 31st 2014:
With the launch of the EU Access City Awards in 2010 during the first year of the European Disability Strategy 2010-2020, the EU made an important and tangible procession towards a more accessible future for all humans, irrespective of age, mobility or ability.