The Relevance of the Research Component in the Development of an Age-Friendly Cities Programmes

Comparing the development of two AFC programmes, one in the Province of Québec, Canada, the other in the Walloon Region, Belgium, it appears that the role of the research has been determinant. Specifically, the implication of a research team along the process in the implementation of a successful platform for action to make cities more Age-Friendly Communities appeared as success factor. This presentation aims to underline the involvement, at every step of the process, from the social diagnostic to the evaluation of the activities, of a research team. Furthermore, using Michael Burawoy’s classification based in four ideal-types of researchers, whom range from strictly academic to policy- or public- oriented, we will analyse the role of the researcher itself. This classification takes also into account not only the ideal-types of researchers but also the different categories of knowledge that are at stake in this situation. For instance, when a broad diversity of stakeholders are involved, the research narrative has to be well-understood by all of them. Precisely, because everyone has a role to play to implement Age-Friendly Communities, the researchers have to master different types of knowledge from a solid academic one to the abilities of knowledge transfers. In this conference, we will give an overview of the different aspects of the research task and what has to be taken into account in the development of AFC.