Transitioning to The Age of Inclusion
Supporting wisdom transfer to create intergenerational solidarity
Assignment #4: Designing for Transitions
Carnegie Mellon, Transition Design Seminar, Spring 2023
Team Holarchy: Jasmin Palermo, Gabriela Arias, Gladys Mercier, Misari Patel, Saurin Nanavati
This is the fourth article in a five-part series which describes our work to better understand the wicked problem of the isolation of the elderly, and examine how this problem manifests in place in Pittsburgh, PA. The previous three articles described our work and results in (1) defining the components of the problem as we know it today (Article 1), (2) describing the relationships between important stakeholders within the problem frame (Article 2), and (Article 3) a brief exploration of the historic factors (e.g. events, innovations, policies, etc) that contributed to the phenomenon of isolation of the elderly becoming mainstream in the United States (Article 3). Where the third assignment extended our thinking into the distant past, this fourth assignment uses our previous work as a basis for generating visions that extend into the distant future, at multiple levels of scale, that we hope can motivate their development to maturity by fifty years from now, via the phases of our transition pathway.
Introduction
After working for eight weeks on exploring the many dimensions of our wicked problem, it was time to look forward and envision facets of a long-term future in which the problem of the isolation of the elderly has been resolved. Our target date: 2075. This “futuring” work (UHM, 2023) is arranged into two parts. First, the Domains of Everyday Life framework (Kossoff, 2019) was used to structure our thinking about what everyday life looks like from within each level in a set of nested domains (see: Developing a Long-Term Future: A Vision for 2075 below.) The five levels begin with the domain of smallest scale, the home, and move out to the neighborhood, the city, the region, all the way up to the largest realm we consider: planet Earth. An important element of building a map of the future (or any system map) is identifying and understanding the interconnections and relationships between components in adjacent levels as these connections help reveal the systemic nature of a problem. Second, we analyzed three aspects of human nature in detail that we believe contribute to the wicked problem (see: Designing the Transition Pathway below.) We examine what to keep or leave behind in our current ways of doing things, and where emergent ideas can accelerate our transition to a future we want.
Process
We began the Domains of Everyday Life analysis by considering the characteristics of a future residential home environment. If the problem of isolation of the elderly has been eliminated, what does daily life look like in a typical household? What would be different in that future from what is happening there today? What ideas, behaviors, and mindsets would need to be in effect within all family members to support a new way of living that addresses the isolation of the elderly as a social problem — in the home?
After developing “in the present” statements about aspects of living in that future household, we turned to the next level of the system which encompasses those homes: the local neighborhood. Similar questions were asked for this level. How would the experience of a neighborhood be different in our envisioned future where the problem is resolved? We first looked at how the characteristics of households in the future could collectively create a new kind of neighborhood experience, but then also built on those ideas to envision the support that would be present for a new way of being for neighbors actively invested in eliminating the isolation of the elderly in their community. This process continued, level by level, until we were able to build up several ideas for new dimensions of society (through our specific wicked problem lens) at local, city, regional, and planetary levels. As we worked to incrementally create this model of the future, we regularly made updates to the statements we had previously documented at the various levels, working up and down the levels of daily life to refine and clarify our vision.
Developing a Long-Term Future: A Vision for 2075
Our resulting five-level model of the future (Shown above) documents a rich set of inspiring mini-vision facets. Below are descriptions of the major themes that emerged and span all levels of our model. These aspirations could drive the creation of a future we want.
Business attitudes:
We found that from a business standpoint, the issues facing seniors today revolve around their active participation, or rather inclusion, in work life. Too often seniors are considered to have less potential and value as they get older, so current infrastructure should support a growing number of seniors who want to participate and further their career goals, rather than force them to retire. At the household level this translates to simply recognizing the value of seniors, supporting their strengths, and empowering seniors so that they are aware of their vast capabilities regardless of their age. Neighborhood businesses play a role when it comes to inclusive hiring initiatives and crafting an intergenerational workforce, which tangibly can mean providing on-the job training for all age groups. Senior workers on the city level should have plenty of specialized opportunities that cater to the strengths of that specific age group. We hope that these interventions will regionally spark an awareness of the benefits associated with employing senior citizens, and how that diversity can strengthen all types of business, organizations, and companies. Ultimately, we envision that people will embrace aging as something natural. Rather than seeing it as a process that degrades labor value, people are considered to have different strengths as they age, which are just as valuable over time. The business sector has great potential to catalyze these future visions to create a more equitable and interconnected world for seniors.
Built environment
This theme considers all physical structures such as homes, community buildings and their features, including the regional extension of these infrastructure elements into patterns of building via urban planning. The popular residential feature of “porch culture” has combined with the use of “heated longhouses” (used for community activities), to create an expanded, comfortable environment for seniors to engage with others outside of the home under all weather conditions. Building codes now require spaces for building intergenerational communities at neighborhood and city levels. All opportunities for intergenerational and intercultural interactions must be intentionally explored and documented in the design proposals for museums, parks, schools, hospitals, shopping areas, airports, and all other common spaces. Eventually, a standard was developed (based on the successful Pittsburgh pilot) and mandated by the US EPA for Inclusive Urban Design which synergizes with and expands on existing planning initiatives such as Livable Cities and Sustainable SITES (ASLA, 2023). These older programs that were concerned with the sustainable design, construction and maintenance of landscape and city infrastructure have been expanded to include criteria to assess achievement of intergenerational goals.
Civic governance
As the wisdom of seniors is now recognized and valued, city and regional planning boards actively seek input from senior citizens. Beginning in the neighborhoods, through a comfortable local environment of longhouse activities that encourage participation by all residents, individual seniors have revitalized their interest and recognized their potential to contribute to the community. As a result of this helpful advice from a wider range of stakeholders, planning and policy agencies create standards and procedures to guide their region in developing policies that require more inclusion of all ages and abilities.
Mindset
In our past three articles we have emphasized the connections between social isolations, loneliness and how feelings and thoughts all influence our mental and physical health. By promoting “Age Inclusivity” in Pittsburgh we want to enjoy the aging process and demonstrate that “You’re only as old as you feel.”
Transportation
Transportation is part of urban planning infrastructure, but we treat it separately here because mobility and connectivity are major challenges for senior citizens who require assistance to travel independently. By 2075, the intergenerational household is common, so family members regularly help seniors (within their home or close neighbors) travel to and from various activities such as shopping, work, council meetings, events, or doctor appointments. When family members are unavailable, seniors can rely on a rideshare network, with volunteer and paid drivers in the community who take individuals (or groups) directly to a location, or to a transportation hub to connect to the city or regional system. Transportation planning at city and regional levels is assisted by machine learning and other intelligence technologies to keep the routes up-to-date and financially viable. Areas of high use (e.g. medical centers) have priority. Drivers in these systems are trained to assist riders who have mobility challenges. Transportation is just one aspect of the paradigm of mutual aid (Pittsburgh Mutual Aid, n.d.).
Designing the Transition Pathway
The second part of this work (Shown above) drew on the energy our team gained from creating a compelling long-term future map in a relatively short amount of time. However, the detailed analysis of the present situation with respect to our wicked problem (referred to as ‘taking stock’) was not as straightforward since we brainstormed too many options to consider. Below are the four guiding questions that we worked with as we deliberated about which aspects of everyday life to prioritize in the transition pathway. The first two questions are concerned with the established ways of doing things, and the second two are about emergent ideas.
- What is it about the current pattern of daily living that isn’t working? What should we stop doing as we move into the future?
- What about this paradigm should we keep? Most systems have both good and bad parts in them; let’s keep the good things.
- What new ideas or practices have the potential to disrupt the status quo on a larger scale than they have now?
- Which policies or practices already exist in the world but we haven’t recognized them as part of the solution yet?
Lots of team discussion eventually led to the selection of three aspects of modern human nature that were analyzed according to the four questions listed above. Interestingly, the items we ended up with are all related to mindset, instead of policy or physical infrastructure. Mindset, “a shared idea in the minds of society”, while hard to change, is considered by Meadows (1999) as providing the greatest point of leverage for intervention in a system.
Individualism Culture
Modern societies revolve around the idea of self preservation. We often forget that we are also part of different communities and cultures and we are actually not as unique as we think we are. Individualistic cultures focus on personal needs more than what others need, which contributes to a sense of isolation and other societal problems. We need to change that mindset. How can we as individuals do better? It is important to understand that we are still important and that in order to help others we need to work on ourselves first. As we work on ourselves, we need to develop a sense of identity and understand our values. In this way, we will know our skills and therefore use them to contribute back to our communities. We can also encourage the expansion and adoption of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) initiatives for intentional consideration of all ages and abilities. As we look into the future and plan for some long-lasting changes, we look upon education and its importance. Educating current and future generations about how to sustain healthier lifestyles with inclusion and equity could be part of a solution. All ages should learn about mindfulness, wellness, DEI, and servant leadership.
Idealizing Youth
As society advances and new generations arrive, we often leave older generations to the side. Younger generations are often considered the backbone for our future because they are often more open-minded, creative, or dynamic. What we do not realize is that older generations are still very important and can make great contributions to our future. Even though idealizing younger generations can be a problem, we need to be open minded and encourage contributions from all ages and experiences. Centering older adults’ opinions does not require silencing the voice of young people and vice versa. In order to change this mindset, we need to give more visibility and be more inclusive with everyone. We can do this by expanding the portrayal of all ages in images and advertisements. Use age appropriate actors in movies/series; write stories about a hero/heroine who is a senior citizen. As we look into our vision of the future, we realize that we can learn from the cultures who already include elderly members of their societies, and who regard them with appreciation and respect.
Prioritizing Information over Wisdom
The cognitive demands of modern living are ever increasing. The rising trend of information overload, combined with our human tendency for fascination with anything new, taxes our limited mental resources and has created a widespread “poverty of attention” (Simon, 1971) in modern societies. This reduces our available time to take part in other activities, including spending meaningful time with our loved ones. Research shows that some individuals even become addicted (Thipparapu et al., 2020) to modern social platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. However, we should not remove these systems of connection entirely from our lives — were that even possible! They do serve as useful connection mechanisms for friends and families who are dispersed around the globe, and they enable and improve productivity of workers who are not co-located. But we could be much more thoughtful in their use and keep in mind how much time we spend on these platforms instead of interacting with our own human companions. For a credible source of wisdom and experience we should not overlook the lifetime of learning our societies’ elders have accumulated. Expanding on the work done in the Decade of Healthy Aging, pro-senior policies should become a cultural norm.
Milestones: Transition Pathway Toward the Vision
After completion of our long-term future vision, plus detailed consideration of what aspects of society are still relevant in the present — and desirable to take forward into the future — we were ready to define three milestones intended to establish a transition pathway to a desired future.
The Near-Term Milestone is only 5–10 years out and includes tangible items we recognize as strategies for setting up the subsequent milestones. The focus of this first milestone is awareness. For example, leveraging the UN’s “Decade of Healthy Aging (2020–2030)” we envision a branding campaign: “Healthy Pittsburgh” shines a spotlight on people, places and possibilities. Life-long learning, sharing of wisdom, and wellness are key areas of this awareness initiative, which promotes inclusion of elderly people. Investment is funded through public private partnerships.
The Mid-Term Milestone is 25–35 years out. This milestone is far enough away in the future to benefit from a vision, and the focus of this vision milestone is engagement. The “Pro-Aging Pittsburgh” and other awareness campaigns have been so successful that Pittsburgh is now rated as the “Best Place to Grow Old” in the United States. Pittsburghers at all levels of civil society have created a widespread program of inclusion initiatives that work across businesses, universities and K-12 schools, government, and healthcare. All citizens at all ages are able to work, learn, and play together. The Healthy Living & Dying guidelines provide principles by which all Pittsburghers strive to abide.
The Long-Term Milestone is 50–60 years away. Developing this long-term vision helps us learn to think in longer horizons of time, and provides guidance over the decades it will take to resolve our wicked problem. The focus of this milestone is mindset. In the next decade (c. 2025) the entire generation of Baby Boomers will be 65 or older. Now being called ‘senior citizens’ by society, they also remember a time when elders were more valued in the family and in society. This presents an opportunity to innovate for a culture for Healthy Aging that can be built by and for current and future generations. The critical element is trans-generational participation at every stage. In the future, when Millennials and Gen Z’s reach the age of 70, the culture of isolation of elderly will be understood not only as outdated but as unwise. Growing old will be celebrated, respected, and enjoyed: 80 is the new 20.
Conclusion
The UN has designated 2020–2030 as the “Decade of Healthy Aging” and governments from federal to local are allocating funds to support the transition of the baby-boomers to senior citizens. According to the Pew Research (Fry, 2020) center: “Millennials have surpassed Baby Boomers as the nation’s largest living adult generation, according to population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau…Millennials, whom we define as ages 23 to 38 in 2019, numbered 72.1 million, and Boomers (ages 55 to 73) numbered 71.6 million.” This means that baby boomers can lead the way once again for other generations to follow, however instead of a pursuit of accumulation of possessions we can accumulate relationships.
When reflecting on issues associated with isolation of the elderly in Pittsburgh we focused on a few key areas. Some of the materially focused topics are that older Pittsburghers are more isolated in the winter months, due to the weather and associated transportation difficulties. Pittsburgh has a rich history with the Arts and Sciences which are embodied through their museums and universities. Pittsburgh has many forested parks, with accessibility and activities targeting older citizens for both community building and nature-based wellness. The sense of community is nowhere stronger than when it comes to sports and the related Pittsburgh teams, and this norm can be used to add a Pittsburgh flavor to the development of non-material interventions. Additionally, Pittsburgh’s still-celebrated work ethic, which arose from the toil required in the steel industry, can be used to brand our inclusion initiatives.
These are all pieces of a puzzle we can fit together to develop a model of the future that would support more inclusion rather than our current status quo of isolation of the elderly. There is more research being done around the physical and mental effects of loneliness and more mindfulness around general wellness across a full lifespan. As we are all recovering from the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, there is more acknowledgement of the importance of reconnecting with community, friends, and family.
References
American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). (2023). The Sustainable SITES Initiative. https://www.asla.org/sites/. Accessed March 2023.
Fry, R. (2020). Senior researcher at Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/04/28/millennials-overtake-baby-boomers-as-americas-largest-generation/
Kossoff, G. (2019). Cosmopolitan Localism: The Planetary Networking of Everyday Life. Cuaderno Journal 73: Transition Design Monograph. University of Palermo, Argentina. pp. 51–66.
Meadows, D. (1999). Places to Intervene in a System. The Sustainability Institute/Academy for System Change. Accessed Jan. 2023.
Pittsburgh Mutual Aid. (n.d.). Pittsburgh Mutual Aid. https://www.pittsburghmutualaid.com/pittsburgh-mutual-aid. Accessed March 2023. This group was formed as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic but has since ceased operations.
Simon, H. (1971). Designing Organizations for an Information-Rich World in Martin Greenberger (ed.) Computers, Communications, and the Public Interest.
Thipparapu, R. & Rangaiah, B. (2020). Facebook addiction and personality. Heliyon, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03184.
University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM). (2023). Hawaiian Center for Futures Studies. https://manoa.hawaii.edu/futures-center/
