Old age in urban discourse: The age-friendly city and the ambiguities of later life

Population ageing and urbanisation have intensified efforts to design cities that support later life. The World Health Organization’s Age-Friendly Cities and Communities (AFCC) framework promotes autonomy, participation, and health, yet it remains unclear how advanced old age and vulnerability are positioned within this agenda. This qualitative document analysis draws on situational analysis to examine how later life is constructed across international, national (Germany), and municipal AFCC policy documents. Using situational, social worlds/arenas, and positional maps, the analysis reconstructs actors, institutional logics, and discursive tensions. Ageing is predominantly framed as a functional and governable condition centred on activation, prevention, and environmental adaptation. Across governance levels, policy discourse separates activity from care: activation narratives cluster around early later life, while frailty and dependency are largely confined to specialised care systems. Advanced old age and health-socio-economic inequalities remain weakly integrated into the dominant urban imaginary. The article demonstrates how age-friendly urbanism constructs later life as active and locally governable, while structural vulnerabilities are only partially addressed, informing more inclusive and targeted approaches to urban ageing policy.