Active aging through civic and social participation, In the case of elderly over 65 in Turin neighborhood houses

For older people, urban environments can be unfriendly and isolating, where emotions of vulnerability, insecurity, and social isolation are frequently experienced. Research has shown that urban settings and public places like neighborhood houses could support seniors in becoming empowered and active citizens by providing opportunities for their civic and social participation in their communities. This thesis aims to investigate how public spaces, like Casa del Quartiere, could empower seniors over 65 years old from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds, nationalities, and genders through social and civic participation. To achieve the aim and answer the questions of the research, the research is divided into two parts: the theoretical part and the practical part. During the first phase, I reviewed the literature, concentrating on five significant chapters about the concepts of active aging, its relationship to social and civic participation, age-friendly cities, and community centers. In the second phase, I applied qualitative methods including, flânerie, visual sociology, and flânerie restoration to evaluate the proposed hypothesis and explore research subjects in depth in four neighborhood houses in Turin. During flânerie and visual sociology practice, six parameters based on the place-age project conducted in the UK in 2019 were considered. The result indicates that neighborhood houses, or casa del quartiere, in Turin play a key role in the empowerment and active citizenship of seniors over 65 of varying ethnicities, genders, and socioeconomic levels. However, numerous modifications are required to make these neighborhoods’ houses fully functional for the active aging of the elderly.