Resources.

Videos and webinars 

Visit our growing collection of videos and webinars developed by CoDesign Commons and/or organizational partners. Topics range from aging and technology to dementia-friendly communities.

Lifetime Communities

Bristol, England. June 2015. In this video, anthropologist Phil Stafford speaks to participants at the 53rd. International Making Cities Livable conference. He highlights the imbalanced priorities of spending and care for elders: while significant funds are spent on aging- related health costs, many countries, including the US, rank inadequately in terms of aging support. This data supports the notion that this is “not a personal problem, but a community challenge!”

Dementia Friendly Bloomington (April, 2019)
In this brief review of the work of the Dementia Friendly Bloomington participants, Phil Stafford discusses the evolution of thinking about dementia, away from a medical model to a community model. He discusses the 2018 mini-charrette held at the DFB annual conference for prospective attendees to the 2019 conference.

A New Culture of Aging
Kansas City, 2012 at the Kaufman Foundation. Phil Stafford discussed the importance of sense of place in later life, how it can be achieved, and why the health care system needs to acknowledge these values and behaviors.

Design for a Livable Lifetime Community
Bloomington, IN. April, 2021.

Architect Zach Benedict discusses the concept of the Lifetime Community District, with particular reference to placemaking and current barriers to the development of good places. He emphasizes the importance of attention to social connections, over and above our cultural obsession with individualism.

Livable Communities for a Lifetime
ADA Great Lakes, University of IL, Chicago. March 2021.

ADA Great Lakes, University of IL, Chicago. March 2021. Anthropologist Phil Stafford clarifies the distinction between accessible design and universal design, arguing the latter framework lends itself well to comprehensive community participation for livable community development.

Lessons after COVID 19: Addressing Social Isolation through the Built Environment

Technology for a Good Old Age

Bloomington, IN and Portland OR. A talk by Michael Mehaffy of Sustasis Foundation and International Making Cities Livable (IMCL), with introduction and moderation by Phil Stafford of the Co-Design Commons, courtesy of Indiana University. Recorded December 10, 2020

Publications 

Visit this somewhat rag tag collection of wonderful articles, reports and web links, in no particular order, to experience the incredibly wide scope of the field of codesign, age and ability friendly communities, anthropology and aging, and other endeavors.

Elderburbia by Phil Stafford

Elderburbia: Aging with a Sense of Place in America argues that aging is not about time and the body, but about place and relationships. Drawing on the fascinating, multidisciplinary field of ethnography, it gives readers a deeper understanding of how the aging experience is shaped by where people call home, as well as a look at what makes a place well-suited for post-retirement living.

Elderburbia combines cutting-edge scholarship with practical advice. The book provides an introduction to pivotal research on the broad subject of aging and place, including studies of migration and relocation. It also takes readers inside innovative elder-friendly community planning around the United States, particularly AdvantAge―an initiative to help counties, cities, and towns prepare for the growing number of older adults who are "aging in place," as opposed to moving to retiree-only communities. Everyone from individuals and families to social workers, activists, and city officials will find this a helpful, enlightening resource.

Collaborators & Networks

 Catch up to the field of codesign for a small aging planet by discovering the work of many talented writers, scholars, researchers and practitioners, housed within important global centers, institutes, universities and non-profits.

Commons Planning - Scott Ball

Bringing together a wide range of expertise in community engagement, public sector operations, built environment design and development, and natural environment preservation, Commons has been formed to support communities interested in growing, maintaining, and better celebrating their commons.

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The CoDesign Co​mmons
Indiana office of Commons Planning, Inc. 
www.commonsplanning.org

Philip B. Stafford, CoDesign Director
[email protected]
812-361-6267
Bloomington, IN 47408