Accessibility, aging and disability
The increasing physical and mental illness burden on healthcare systems, coupled with the neoliberal de-institutionalisation and privatisation of care, has led to a growing preoccupation in contemporary societies with the ways our everyday environments relate to well-being, happiness and quality of life.
Researchers of the Cultural Geography Group who are working in close cooperation with other chair groups on the intersections between tourism, accessibility and health are engaged in two lines of research. The first focuses on the therapeutic role of natural environments (e.g., blue- and greenspaces like forests, water and care farms). The second attends to the impacts of significant demographic and epidemiological trends (e.g., ageing, growing proportions of chronic illness and disability affecting people’s mobility, senses and cognition) on the accessibility of tourism and travel opportunities.