Understanding stakeholders’ concerns of age-friendly communities at briefing stage : a China study

Abstract

The rapid ageing society in the urbanised world urges cities to make changes and be well prepared for challenges arise. Promoting age-friendly communities (AFCs) will not only be helpful to achieve WHO’s sustainable goals, but also shape cities more inclusive and equitable places. For developing countries like China, stakeholders face more challenges as medical care,the welfare system,and urban-rural integration issues have not been well addressed. Therefore, understanding stakeholders’ concerns at the briefing stage will be helpful to promote active collaborations. This study first reviews stakeholders and their roles to play in AFCs projects, critical factors of building AFCs,and the importance of the briefing stage; then applies a two-mode social network to analyse relationships of stakeholders and critical factors based on the evaluation metrices generated from three rounds of focus group meetings. According to the results, specific features of Chinese stakeholders and critical factors, challenges of promoting AFCs under Chinese background, and potential strategies to mitigate stakeholders’ conflicts at the briefing stage are discussed. The outcomes of this study can serve as references to understand relationships between stakeholders and critical factors, which may, therefore, improve the AFCs constructing management processes in urban China.