What places? What ageing(s)? Ageing-in-place in contemporary African urbanities: the cases of Namibia and Uganda
The proposed project examines spatial aspects of older people's everyday life and ageing in the context of contemporary urban situations in Africa: Walvis Bay, Namibia and Jinja, Uganda, both major industrial towns. People in Africa age under rapidly changing social and economic conditions, and urban areas are particularly dynamic places. A point of departure for the project is that this complex web of spaces is intertwined with older people's strategies and subjectivities. These spaces can be seen as 'throwntogetherness', in which ageing-in-place is a negotiation of diverse spaces (social, imaginary and practical/functional) in which the older person's ageing emerge, implying a constructionist perspective on ageing. Existing research on ageing in urban Africa is scarce and does not acknowledge space as a factor in the construction of ageing, a gap the proposed project will address. A qualitative research design will be used in fieldwork carried out in communities for economically disadvantaged groups. About 30 participants aged 60 and above will participate, including women and men, retirees from the formal sector and workers in the informal sector. Different data collection methods will be employed, such as interviews, visual methods and workshops. Two senior researchers with experience from research in both Namibia and Uganda will be engaged in the three-year project.
Final report
Project aim and development
This project studies the relationship between ageing and space in an African context. The mutuality of these processes is central to the research. The project’s aim is to explore how older peoples’ everyday practices unfold in space and are formed and informed by space, and how these practices produce changes in space. The project is a comparative case study with two cases of industrial cities: Jinja in Uganda and Walvis Bay in Namibia. Both have legacies of apartheid and colonial industrial activities and urban planning. They also demonstrate interesting differences in economic capacity and services for elder persons, which was a motivating factor for the selection of these two countries. Few reasons appeared for major changes in the project plan, theory or methodology. Many of the presumptions in the study proved correct, such as relevant differences between the two cases of importance to the comparison, and the presence of permanently-living elder persons in the two cities. The project has thus largely been implemented according to plan. However, the partner from Stockholm University left the project in 2018.
Implementation
The implementation went largely according to the research plan, albeit with a slight delay. The first year was used for fieldwork preparations and literature studies. The two researchers met regularly. Fieldwork was carried out according to the plan in both countries during the second year of the project period. The project took advantage of the possibility for a fourth year of access to funding. After an analysis period, the writing up of results commenced in Sept 2017 with a comparative paper. The fact that the Stockholm University partner left the project affected the project’s comparative component to a smaller extent than might be expected, since the comparative work began with a joint paper. This was not planned. The joint paper was expected to finalise the writing, however, the Ugandan part of the research – i.e. the individual research papers that was planned – was never concluded. The Namibian part was completed as anticipated.
Major results and contributions to international research
The project explores a new phenomenon in an African context: permanently-living elder persons in cities. The first publication challenges migration theory, in particular circular migration, by presenting an alternative theoretical framing in the new concept “translocal optimisation”. This concept implies the process of an individual’s ongoing strategies implemented in various places at the same time in order to create potential possibilities to meet upcoming adversities and life changes. Migration could be such a potential strategy, but it might not necessarily happen, as the cases prove. Various resources in several places are constantly negotiated, compared and valued. This concept explains the rationales for activities that are often associated with individuals’ plans to re-migrate to their places of origin in rural areas, such as construction of housing, visits, and cultivation of long-standing personal contacts, without re-migration occurring. These strategies appeared both in similar and different versions in the two cases for social, political and economic reasons. Translocal optimisation also involves other people, such as relatives. The observation in the study that there is an exchange between relatives in Africa is not a new one. However, the second paper discusses how family exchanges in Namibia have transformed the architecture of the original apartheid location dwellings and turned them into “family houses” for several generations. The apartheid regime coerced older individuals to leave their houses upon retirement, which were designed for nuclear families. Since they now remain in the city, they appeared in the study as a resource for the extended family by virtue of their ownership of the housing unit. This has also been noted in other research. This study contributes by linking the substantial spatial additions and extensions of the original housing units that made this possible, for instance the construction of back-yard shacks for rentals. The older person appears in this context as an individual with resources who contributes to joint family interests, challenging the view sometimes presented in research that older persons only require care and help that their families may have difficulties providing. The third paper explores the links between welfare and housing by taking into consideration elder persons’ needs and contributions. This has policy implications for social housing and spatial planning, which is currently not addressed in the Namibian policy for elder care and mass housing provision.
New research questions
The research revealed an important gap in research: the design and planning of social and mass housing that should be investigated with an intergenerational approach. Africans often solve their own problems using the means at hand. Translocal optimisation shows the richness and inventiveness of this problem-solving. The study showed how planning, urban design, and architectural design may inhibit and prevent rather than underpin and support these individual initiatives and problem-solving. This is an issue worth exploring in greater detail in order to better understand the rationales for inventions and optimisation.
Internationalization
The internationalization of this project is somewhat self-evident. Many different contacts have been established with relevant individuals and organisations during the project. Below is a selection of people of importance to the project which also indicates some important authorities and organizations.
Selected important contacts in Namibia
Gabriel Marin, Coordinator, Ministry of Urban and Rural Development.
Anna Coetzee at the Department of Social Services at Ministry of Health and Social Services.
Anna Muller, Namibia Housing Action Group.
Naftali Uutoni, Chairperson of Shack-Dwellers Federation, Walvis Bay.
Selected important contacts in Uganda
Beatrice Kaggya, Acting Commissioner of Disability and Elderly at Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development.
John Orach, Chairperson of the National Network for Older Persons.
Joseph Mugisha Bitature, National Advocacy Officer at HelpAge International.
Researcher contacts
Phillip Lühl, Senior lecturer at the Department of Architecture and Spatial Planning, Namibian University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Windhoek, Namibia.
Guillermo Delgado, Land Livelihoods and Housing Coordinator, Department of Architecture and Spatial Planning, Namibian University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Windhoek, Namibia.
Janet Ananias, PhD and Senior Lecturer at the Department of Social Work in University of Namibia (UNAM), Windhoek. Co-author of one submitted article.
Abel Nzabona, Gerontologist, PhD and Senior Lecturer at Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR), Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.
Dr Ntozi, Gerontologist, PhD and Senior Lecturer at Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR), Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.
Dissemination of results
Three papers are currently in the process of being published in scientific journals. One has been accepted and two have been submitted.
The researchers have met other researchers in person on two occasions and held oral presentations at two international conferences.
The project was presented at a lecture at the Department of Architecture and Spatial Planning, Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST). The lecture aimed at feeding into a consultancy for the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development on the housing situation in Namibia that was conducted by the Department of Architecture and Spatial Planning.
The project coordinator presently has exchanges with two Namibian newspapers: the Namibian and New Era, regarding publication of the research project, its major results, and policy implications.
The project was also presented with a poster at the celebration event commemorating 30 years of spatial planning at BTH in 2019, as well as in the anniversary publication Special issue of PLAN, the magazine for Föreningen för Samhällsplanering [The Association of Planning]. http://www.planering.org/plan-blog/2019/11/15/fysisk-planering-bth-30-r
This project studies the relationship between ageing and space in an African context. The mutuality of these processes is central to the research. The project’s aim is to explore how older peoples’ everyday practices unfold in space and are formed and informed by space, and how these practices produce changes in space. The project is a comparative case study with two cases of industrial cities: Jinja in Uganda and Walvis Bay in Namibia. Both have legacies of apartheid and colonial industrial activities and urban planning. They also demonstrate interesting differences in economic capacity and services for elder persons, which was a motivating factor for the selection of these two countries. Few reasons appeared for major changes in the project plan, theory or methodology. Many of the presumptions in the study proved correct, such as relevant differences between the two cases of importance to the comparison, and the presence of permanently-living elder persons in the two cities. The project has thus largely been implemented according to plan. However, the partner from Stockholm University left the project in 2018.
Implementation
The implementation went largely according to the research plan, albeit with a slight delay. The first year was used for fieldwork preparations and literature studies. The two researchers met regularly. Fieldwork was carried out according to the plan in both countries during the second year of the project period. The project took advantage of the possibility for a fourth year of access to funding. After an analysis period, the writing up of results commenced in Sept 2017 with a comparative paper. The fact that the Stockholm University partner left the project affected the project’s comparative component to a smaller extent than might be expected, since the comparative work began with a joint paper. This was not planned. The joint paper was expected to finalise the writing, however, the Ugandan part of the research – i.e. the individual research papers that was planned – was never concluded. The Namibian part was completed as anticipated.
Major results and contributions to international research
The project explores a new phenomenon in an African context: permanently-living elder persons in cities. The first publication challenges migration theory, in particular circular migration, by presenting an alternative theoretical framing in the new concept “translocal optimisation”. This concept implies the process of an individual’s ongoing strategies implemented in various places at the same time in order to create potential possibilities to meet upcoming adversities and life changes. Migration could be such a potential strategy, but it might not necessarily happen, as the cases prove. Various resources in several places are constantly negotiated, compared and valued. This concept explains the rationales for activities that are often associated with individuals’ plans to re-migrate to their places of origin in rural areas, such as construction of housing, visits, and cultivation of long-standing personal contacts, without re-migration occurring. These strategies appeared both in similar and different versions in the two cases for social, political and economic reasons. Translocal optimisation also involves other people, such as relatives. The observation in the study that there is an exchange between relatives in Africa is not a new one. However, the second paper discusses how family exchanges in Namibia have transformed the architecture of the original apartheid location dwellings and turned them into “family houses” for several generations. The apartheid regime coerced older individuals to leave their houses upon retirement, which were designed for nuclear families. Since they now remain in the city, they appeared in the study as a resource for the extended family by virtue of their ownership of the housing unit. This has also been noted in other research. This study contributes by linking the substantial spatial additions and extensions of the original housing units that made this possible, for instance the construction of back-yard shacks for rentals. The older person appears in this context as an individual with resources who contributes to joint family interests, challenging the view sometimes presented in research that older persons only require care and help that their families may have difficulties providing. The third paper explores the links between welfare and housing by taking into consideration elder persons’ needs and contributions. This has policy implications for social housing and spatial planning, which is currently not addressed in the Namibian policy for elder care and mass housing provision.
New research questions
The research revealed an important gap in research: the design and planning of social and mass housing that should be investigated with an intergenerational approach. Africans often solve their own problems using the means at hand. Translocal optimisation shows the richness and inventiveness of this problem-solving. The study showed how planning, urban design, and architectural design may inhibit and prevent rather than underpin and support these individual initiatives and problem-solving. This is an issue worth exploring in greater detail in order to better understand the rationales for inventions and optimisation.
Internationalization
The internationalization of this project is somewhat self-evident. Many different contacts have been established with relevant individuals and organisations during the project. Below is a selection of people of importance to the project which also indicates some important authorities and organizations.
Selected important contacts in Namibia
Gabriel Marin, Coordinator, Ministry of Urban and Rural Development.
Anna Coetzee at the Department of Social Services at Ministry of Health and Social Services.
Anna Muller, Namibia Housing Action Group.
Naftali Uutoni, Chairperson of Shack-Dwellers Federation, Walvis Bay.
Selected important contacts in Uganda
Beatrice Kaggya, Acting Commissioner of Disability and Elderly at Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development.
John Orach, Chairperson of the National Network for Older Persons.
Joseph Mugisha Bitature, National Advocacy Officer at HelpAge International.
Researcher contacts
Phillip Lühl, Senior lecturer at the Department of Architecture and Spatial Planning, Namibian University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Windhoek, Namibia.
Guillermo Delgado, Land Livelihoods and Housing Coordinator, Department of Architecture and Spatial Planning, Namibian University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Windhoek, Namibia.
Janet Ananias, PhD and Senior Lecturer at the Department of Social Work in University of Namibia (UNAM), Windhoek. Co-author of one submitted article.
Abel Nzabona, Gerontologist, PhD and Senior Lecturer at Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR), Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.
Dr Ntozi, Gerontologist, PhD and Senior Lecturer at Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR), Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.
Dissemination of results
Three papers are currently in the process of being published in scientific journals. One has been accepted and two have been submitted.
The researchers have met other researchers in person on two occasions and held oral presentations at two international conferences.
The project was presented at a lecture at the Department of Architecture and Spatial Planning, Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST). The lecture aimed at feeding into a consultancy for the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development on the housing situation in Namibia that was conducted by the Department of Architecture and Spatial Planning.
The project coordinator presently has exchanges with two Namibian newspapers: the Namibian and New Era, regarding publication of the research project, its major results, and policy implications.
The project was also presented with a poster at the celebration event commemorating 30 years of spatial planning at BTH in 2019, as well as in the anniversary publication Special issue of PLAN, the magazine for Föreningen för Samhällsplanering [The Association of Planning]. http://www.planering.org/plan-blog/2019/11/15/fysisk-planering-bth-30-r