ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an essential brief for those within, and those sensitive to, the geographical discipline. How geographers contribute to and meet the challenge of collaborative interdisciplinary study–particularly at a time when global ageing is a crucial factor in our changing world–is imperative for the future of geographical gerontology. Geographers are leaders when mapping data, using geographical information systems and visual methods. Additionally, qualitative methods utilising ethnographic, biographical and oral history skills enable a more detailed life-course approach to personal history of value to both cross-sectional and longitudinal research. It is an area of humanistic geography where research often has the capacity to make a direct impact on people's lives across a range of policy areas from health to housing, transport to leisure, financial arrangements to age-friendly cities and communities. There is a need to recognise and acknowledge the geographical view within gerontology alongside psychology, sociology and design, as well as the practice of nursing, social work and occupational therapy.
