News
Find out what's been happening at the Manchester Urban Ageing Research Group (MUARG).
July 2026
MUARG report calls for older people’s voices in North Manchester regeneration
A new MUARG report by Camilla Lewis and Niamh Kavanagh calls for older people’s voices to shape the major regeneration taking place across North Manchester.
Drawing on collaborative research with more than 40 older residents and community organisations, the report highlights residents’ strong sense of community and belonging. It sets out six priorities to help policymakers create inclusive, age-friendly neighbourhoods that benefit the people already living there.
Celebrating connection in Cheetham Hill
A new booklet by Camilla Lewis and Niamh Kavanagh, co-produced with members of the Khidmat Group, shares the life stories of eight older South Asian men living in North Manchester.
Combining first-person stories with photographs by Chan yang-Kim, Khidmat: Our Stories explores community, identity, belonging, and the men’s experiences of growing older in Cheetham Hill and Crumpsall.
Niamh Kavanagh wins Making a Difference Award
MUARG member Niamh Kavanagh, Tina Cribbin, and Anthea Cribbin have won the Outstanding Public Engagement Initiative award at the University of Manchester’s Making a Difference Awards 2026.
Their work with the Hulme Nannas helped establish the UK’s first Naturally Occurring Retirement Community at Hopton Court, supporting residents to shape local services, activities, and a new community space.
Pippa Winship highly commended
MUARG member Pippa Winship has been highly commended in the PhD student category of the 2026 Sociology Impact and Engagement Prize.
Pippa was recognised for helping residents and community groups understand and respond to redevelopment plans in North Manchester, including supporting residents to present alternative proposals to the local authority and developers.
Urban Ageing in the Margins: Global Perspectives
A new blog reflects on MUARG’s recent Urban Ageing in the Margins: Global Perspectives event, which brought together researchers, practitioners, community partners, and older people from Manchester and around the world.
The event explored how inequality, marginalisation, and place shape ageing, while sharing participatory and arts-based approaches that centre older people’s experiences and can inform age-friendly policy and practice internationally.
Ageing in place as a human right
A new article co-authored by MUARG member Pippa Winship explores why ageing in place should be understood as a human rights issue.
Published in the latest edition of the United Nations Human Rights Office’s Agency & Dignity, the article considers how spatial planning, housing, the built environment, and meaningful participation shape older people’s dignity, autonomy, and inclusion.
Towards an Architecture of Allyship
A new article by MUARG members Mark Hammond and Niamh Kavanagh examines how architects can challenge spatial ageism by working as allies with older people and local communities.
Published in the Unbuilding Ageism special issue of e-flux Architecture, the article draws on work at Hopton Court in Hulme, Manchester, to explore resistance, collective imagination, and more inclusive approaches to housing and urban change.
Trust-building for age-friendly cities
A new policy brief co-authored by MUARG member Pippa Winship explores why trust is essential to meaningful participation in age-friendly cities and communities.
Drawing on examples from the UK, Hong Kong, and Brazil, the brief considers how planners, policymakers, and community organisations can build trust through long-term relationships, shared responsibility, transparency, and meaningful involvement.
Older people and social infrastructure
A new book chapter by MUARG member Sophie Yarker explores the importance of social infrastructure for older people.
The chapter appears in Social Infrastructure in Neighbourhoods and Cities, a new collection examining how everyday places such as parks, libraries, schools, and community spaces support connection, trust, and community life.
May 2026
MUARG wins Vivensa Academy National Team Achievement Award
MUARG has been recognised with the Team Achievement Excellence Award at the 2026 Vivensa Academy Excellence Awards.
The award celebrates MUARG’s ten years of interdisciplinary, co-produced research into population ageing and urban change, shaped together by researchers, older people, community partners, policymakers, and practitioners.
Read more about MUARG’s Vivensa Award
Watch our 10-year anniversary film
A short film from MUARG’s 10-year anniversary event is now available to watch online.
The film includes reflections from community members, MUARG Older People’s Forum members, researchers, and partners on ten years of co-produced MUARG research, community collaboration, and action on urban ageing.
Co-Production Collection now available
MUARG’s collective publication, Collaborative Research for Ageing in Place: Stories of Co-Production in Practice, is now available online.
The collection brings together reflections and case studies from community members and researchers across a range of MUARG projects, sharing practical learning on relationships, creativity, challenges, and the TRUST framework for meaningful co-production.
Download the Co-Production Collection
New MUARG podcast episodes released
The latest season of MUARG’s Conversations on Urban Ageing podcast series is now available on Spotify.
The new episodes bring together international speakers to discuss ageing in urban environments, including environments of ageing, Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities, inclusive design, housing, and stigma.
Parliamentary written evidence published
MUARG’s written evidence to the House of Lords Built Environment Committee inquiry, New Towns: Creating Communities, has been published.
Drawing on MUARG’s work on age-friendly cities, housing, regeneration, and co-production, the submission argues that new towns must be designed to support people across the life course from the outset.
Special issue: Ageing During Times of Change
A new special issue of Quality in Ageing and Older Adults, guest edited by Sophie Yarker and Chris Phillipson, has been published.
The issue explores ageing during times of change, with a focus on community, social infrastructure, social exclusion, and participatory approaches that centre older people’s experiences.
Tine Buffel interviewed by the University of Chile
MUARG Director Professor Tine Buffel has been interviewed by the University of Chile about ageing, cities, and inclusive urban environments.
The interview explores why cities should be among the best places to age, while reflecting on neighbourhoods, community networks, participatory research, and shared challenges across the UK and Chile.
Age-friendly neighbourhoods conversation
A video conversation with MUARG Director Professor Tine Buffel is available to watch online.
The conversation asks whether we are building neighbourhoods that are friendly to ageing, drawing on research from Chile and Manchester to explore everyday barriers, services, public spaces, and older people’s involvement in shaping fairer urban environments.
University of Manchester ranked number one for Sustainable Cities and Communities
The University of Manchester has been ranked first in the world for sustainability impact in the Times Higher Education Sustainability Impact Ratings.
The University was also ranked first for Sustainable Cities and Communities, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal closely connected to MUARG’s work on inclusive, age-friendly places.
Read more about the University’s impact
March 2026
Celebrating ten years of MUARG: Urban Ageing Research and Action
MUARG marked its 10-year anniversary at the St Thomas Centre in Manchester on 28 April 2026.
The event brought together older people, community groups, policymakers, third-sector colleagues, researchers, and practitioners for a programme of workshops, reflection, and connection, celebrating a decade of collaborative research into making cities and communities better for older people.
Watch the MUARG 10-year anniversary film
MUARG Co-Production Collection launch
MUARG launched its collective publication on co-production, Collaborative Research for Ageing in Place: Stories of Co-Production in Practice, at its 10-year anniversary event.
The book brings together examples of researchers working with communities in a variety of contexts and aims to promote learning and critical reflection on co-production methodologies. Its collage cover reflects the wide range of co-production research across MUARG projects.
Download the Co-Production Collection
MUARG PhD graduation: Congratulations to Dr Joana Salles
Congratulations to Dr Joana Salles, who successfully defended her PhD viva.
The examiners praised Joana’s work on everyday experiences of neighbourhood change and creative methods that centre older people’s voices, noting the quality of its ethnography and the films co-produced with older residents living in gentrifying neighbourhoods in Manchester and Brussels.
Patty Doran awarded UKRI Fellowship
MUARG Deputy Director Patty Doran has been appointed a UKRI Policy Fellow at the Centre for Ageing Better.
Patty will work to bridge research and policy for age-friendly communities, building on five years of work on the Leverhulme Trust-funded Ageing in Place in Cities project.
Read more about Patty’s fellowship
MUARG researchers at the European Parliament
MUARG members Pippa Winship and Luise Stoisser presented findings from the HOMeAGE Doctoral Network to policymakers at the European Parliament in Brussels.
Pippa presented work on rights and voices, emphasising that the human rights dimension is often overlooked as people age and that consultation must be meaningful and sustained. Luise presented findings on housing needs and the barriers created when legal and regulatory frameworks do not support care in alternative settings.
Research Café: Religion, Culture, and Community
MUARG member Luciana Lang joined a panel discussion about the Faith Spaces and Older People project at a Research Café held at Manchester Museum.
The session explored how cultural institutions and faith spaces bring people together, build understanding, and nurture belonging, particularly as institutions consider their role in creating inclusive and welcoming experiences for people of all ages and backgrounds.
Read the related article on faith spaces and age-friendly communities
Amy Barron: Age on the Stage
MUARG member Amy Barron’s publication, Age on the Stage: Staging Age Through Creative Encounter, is a short, creatively written booklet produced in collaboration with the theatre company Quarantine.
It documents staged intergenerational encounters from Quarantine’s performance Telescope at Manchester Museum in October 2025 and shows how creative, participatory approaches can open new ways of seeing, feeling, and thinking about ageing and difference.
The booklet interweaves interview excerpts, illustrations, sketches, and event photographs to offer a reflective account of socially engaged practice.
Disobedient Buildings conversation event
MUARG welcomed Inge Daniels from the University of Oxford for a Conversation Series event about her research, Disobedient Buildings: An Ethnography of Ageing Bodies in Ageing Buildings.
The talk and a screening of Daniels’ short film She Waves at Me foregrounded how older residents create networks of care and belonging inside ageing tower blocks, challenging assumptions about isolation and prompting fresh thinking about how homes and buildings might better support ageing in place.
Listen to the Conversations on Urban Ageing podcast series
Conversations on Urban Ageing podcast
A new season of MUARG’s Conversations on Urban Ageing podcast brought recent discussions from the Conversation Series to a wider audience, including Inge Daniels’ work on Disobedient Buildings.
The series brings together researchers, practitioners, and community partners to discuss ageing in urban environments and the development of more inclusive cities and communities.
December 2025
New MUARG research projects announced
MUARG announced two new projects supported by the University of Manchester Research Institute Pump Priming Fund.
Co-developing interdisciplinary research bids to advance healthy ageing and age-friendly urban regeneration in North Manchester is led by Camilla Lewis through the Healthier Futures Platform.
Co-producing inclusive housing and care solutions with older LGBTQ people is led by Dharman Jeyasingham, with Luciana Lang as Research Associate.
Find out more about MUARG’s research projects
MUARG PhD graduations in 2025
MUARG celebrated the achievements of two researchers who completed their PhDs in 2025.
Dr Tess Hartland’s thesis, Navigating Precarity: Narratives of Ageing from Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Greater Manchester, explores experiences of ageing among older refugees and asylum seekers.
Dr Miriam Tenquist’s thesis, Ageing, Identity, and Place: A Life Course Perspective on Chinese Diasporic Experiences in the UK, examines ageing and place among Chinese older people living in the UK.
MUARG awards and recognitions in 2025
MUARG and its members received a range of awards and recognitions for impactful research and engagement during 2025.
Patty Doran won the Best Outstanding Contribution to Research Impact award. Patty Doran, Tine Buffel, and MUARG won the Sociology Impact and Engagement Prize in the staff category, while Joana Salles won the student prize and Pippa Winship was highly commended. Tine Buffel was also included in the Northern Health Science Alliance’s Annual List of Innovative Women.
Explore MUARG’s recognitions and awards
MUARG event highlights from 2025
Throughout 2025, MUARG hosted events, exhibitions, and seminars that brought together researchers, practitioners, community partners, and older people to share ideas and explore ageing in place.
Highlights included a MUARG Older People’s Forum workshop facilitated by Atiha Chaudry; the Hulme Nannas’ exhibition of (in)visibility, community, and urban change; and the Age-Friendly Futures Summit, which brought together researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and communities to develop a global agenda for a more age-friendly world.
MUARG publication highlights from 2025
During 2025, MUARG members contributed publications advancing knowledge of ageing, community, housing, faith spaces, and social change across diverse contexts.
Highlights included Housing and the Environment by Tine Buffel and Mark Hammond; Co-creating Age-Friendly Social Housing: Improving the Experience of Ageing in Place Through Community Collaboration; and Exploring the Role of Faith Spaces as Social Infrastructure in Creating Age-Friendly Communities.
MUARG media contribution highlights from 2025
MUARG members’ work and voices reached wider audiences through podcasts, articles, and media features during 2025.
Highlights included Saving the 86 Bus and Designing Better Cities for the Old and Young, featuring Tine Buffel and Julia King on The We Society podcast; Jingwen Zhang’s Policy@Manchester article on unmet needs for social care among older people; and a Guardian feature on plans for an age-friendly neighbourhood in Manchester.