Despite the growing recognition of the role of neighbourhoods and communities in enabling or constraining successful aging in Canada and around the world, there has only recently been growing evidence of the relationship between successful aging and built environments. This book brings together approaches from gerontology, geography, and planning. The goal of the work is to introduce research on aging and planning to the many entities involved in preparing our cities and environments for the upcoming “surge in seniors” that is expected to last well into the 2050s. The book’s underlying premise, therefore, is that the experience of aging takes place largely in neighbourhoods and communities that are ill-prepared to accommodate this demographic change. By situating Canada’s experience within the context of gerontological and planning theories, as well as the process of aging at the global level, this book makes a valuable contribution to the interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral study of aging in place in Canada.

Geography of Aging is structured into four primary sections. Part One examines where seniors live in Canada, including definitions and a focus on differing approaches to examine aging, followed by a detailed explanation of where Canadian seniors live, and the their general movement patterns in terms of seasonal travel and retirement. By drawing on census data from 2001 and 2006, Hodge provides a number of charts and tables describing Canada’s senior population by age, ethnicity, family context, and location. Part One concludes with a discussion of how rural, urban, and suburban community contexts can enable or constrain general activity patterns of the elderly population. Part Two explores seniors’ daily and community lives from the perspectives of seniors themselves by identifying the personal and physical components that determine seniors’ activities and life spaces. It also discusses how these individual, daily activities are made easier or harder by the community in which seniors reside. For example, he discusses how a small town with a compact built form and good sidewalks might actually have a lower ‘environmental press’ than a larger city with a more sprawling form and poorly maintained infrastructure. Part Three takes a step back from individual experiences to present the historical evidence supporting the “seniors surge” and how that has, and continues to, impact Canadian communities. Hodge explains the ‘baby boomers’ and their effects on Canadian demographics and discusses how their activity patterns, housing preferences and demand for community support are likely to place a considerable strain on communities. Finally, Part Four proposes the adoption of a “senior’s planning perspective” in order to prepare our communities for the aging population. The text concludes with a discussion of those aspects of seniors’ everyday lives that should be included in a “senior-smart planning framework”. This includes understanding seniors’ activity patterns and declining mobility, changing living arrangements, gendered use of space, and growing ethnic diversity.

The author, Dr. Gerald Hodge, is a professor emeritus of planning from Queen’s University, and the author of Canada’s seminal planning textbook (Planning Canadian Communities, published by Nelson Thomsen, now in its fifth edition). That text has become the standard for introductory planning programs across Canada. He brings, therefore, a unique planning perspective to Geography of Aging in the examination of seniors in community and neighbourhood contexts. As a planner, Hodge routinely explores scale – from the individual, to the home, neighbourhood, community, city, region, and country – as well as the intersections of transportation, living arrangements, kinship, and social and cultural contexts. The book, therefore, is broad-ranging and presents theories of aging and communities, statistical evidence of demographic change, and life stories of individuals experiencing aging in particular community contexts.

It is these life stories that form one of the key strengths of Geography of Aging. Both within and at the end of almost every chapter are narratives linking the data and theories from the chapter to the real life experiences of an older person. By presenting these vignettes, Hodge draws the reader into sets of concrete experiences that enliven the academic work appearing in preceding sections. The book’s final vignette is Hodge’s own. In it he talks about his personal experience of having a fall while working on the book and how his reduced independence and mobility compromised his autonomy. His story, like the others provided in the book, poignantly highlights the journey that each one of us either is making or will make as we age.

A second strength of the book is its accessibility. For the most part, the writing is straightforward and suitable for both practitioners and undergraduate students. The theoretical explanations are clear and are not sidetracked into overly technical accounts of academic research. Likewise, the statistics regarding behaviours and demographic change are presented in tables and figures that are easy to understand and which support the author’s main points.

In terms of weakness, the work would benefit from the inclusion of more recent theories, developments, and data. Although published in 2008, the bulk of the statistics come from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Early in the book, some statistics from 2001 and 2006 are included; however, they are few and far between. As a result, the book offers an excellent historical context but is in need of more post-2000 data to reflect the rapidly changing nature of the swelling senior population. Published as it was in 2008, it’s perhaps understandable that some of the post-2000 data may have been unavailable at the time of writing. However, literatures and theories could have been updated to include some of the more recent discussions in aging research. In particular, the book would be strengthened by including new developments on age-friendly communities, in particular the ongoing work of the World Health Organization as well as recent work in geographical gerontology, which seems to be completely absent in the current (2008) edition.

Nonetheless, Geography of Aging is an excellent and easily accessible introduction to aging and planning suitable for readers in both planning and gerontology. It sensitizes planners to the needs of seniors choosing to age in Canadian neighbourhoods and communities. It introduces gerontologists to the perspectives of planners as partners in creating supportive and senior-friendly environments. Any problems related to data and literature could easily be addressed by a new, updated edition, which the author has suggested may be forthcoming.