Welcome

The goal of this blog is to consider cities and how they can support life, especially life as time passes and the needs of our society change.

I am a young professional who works in the field of aging research. My BA was in Sociology at University of Chicago and my MSc in Ecological Economics from University of Edinburgh. While gerontology and the field of 'aging' or 'life course' are relatively new to me, community well-being and development has always been an area of personal interest.

I currently live in Toronto, however I have also spent considerable amounts of time in Chicago, Paris, Montreal, Edinburgh, and London.  If you know about other cities, have an idea for a posting, want to share an interesting resource, or simply want to voice questions or concerns, please post a comment!

As a high school debater, I was taught that you should never start talking about anything without first defining your terms. I chose the blog name Cities for Life because it was affirmative and concise. Though I am very interested in the "age-friendly cities" movement, I don't want to limit this discussion to the criteria that have already been laid out by the World Health Organization and other bodies reporting on aging in the urban sphere. I also object to the "age-friendly cities" terminology because claiming "friendliness" implies a separation (if still a friendly one) between the city and the life within it. My point is precisely the opposite: we must treat cities and life together as they are integrated and their futures and well-beings are inter-connected.