ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how social changes have reshaped understandings of community over time, identifies how communities support healthy ageing, and considers how ageing communities can build capacity. Western societies are seeing populations live to older ages with concerns over levels of isolation beginning to enter the policy arena. Communities provide opportunities for social participation, the development of supportive networks and can reduce isolation. Theories of social capital and the growth of ecological perspectives in health have furthered thinking around communities as dynamic systems embedded in, and shaped by, broader processes. Asset-based approaches to community development capitalise on this dynamism by enabling communities to identify and build on their collective assets while proving acceptable to communities. Age-integrated communities, exemplified by initiatives such as establishing a preschool inside a nursing home to enable older adult residents to watch and interact with their daytime visitors, are thought to provide older adults with greater cognitive stimulation and reduced loneliness.
