Everyday Life and the Stressful Streets - the KOVE Age Research Forum

The first Kilburn Older Voices Exchange Age Research Forum is an opportunity to consider how best older activists and residents can exert their influence in our stressful urban environment. During the morning Dr Elizabeth Webb, now with Age Concern England and University College London, will draw first on extensive research into mobility and public transport. She’ll then address the question: “Crossing the road in time: what can be done?” – focusing on inequality and echoing a constant theme of KOVE’s work for more than 15 years. After lunch anthropologist Dr Farhan Samanani of Oxford University returns to Kilburn to report on his ethnographic study of the area and the ways in which its diverse communities get along. Bringing together social and environmental themes within a place-based approach he will explore the opportunities for “Building community on the go: lessons for and from Kilburn.” Besides our usual mixture of presentations and world-café style debate KOVE will launch our new film archive and show the cult classic “Where is the Green Man?” and our recent examination of estate-based activism “Webheath”. Building on the success of the former Kilburn Debates – at a time when London is dipping its toe in the water around an unlikely-sounding claim to become an ‘age-friendly city’ – this is a great opportunity for researchers, planners, practitioners and activists to get together with the older public and reflect on the upside and the downside of the stressful streets in our dense and congested part of London.

Thursday 8 March 2018 (8th Week, Hilary Term)