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Community, Health, and Family

Rethinking Aging and Development in Rural Contexts: A Post-Growth Perspective Hannah Chow Russell*, Hannah Chow Russell,

Rural regions across the globe are aging more rapidly than urban centers, yet dominant aging policy frameworks remain rooted in growth-oriented, urban-biased economic paradigms. From the WHO’s Age-Friendly Cities framework to the Silver Economy concept, aging is increasingly framed as an economic development opportunity. While these approaches have generated important gains—integrating physical and social environments, mobilizing private sector, and quantifying older adults’ economic contributions—they remain tethered to logics of GDP growth and productivity.

This paper asks: Does post-growth offer a beneficial framework for advancing justice in aging rural societies? Drawing on literature from rural sociology and post-growth scholarship, the paper traces the evolution of age-friendly and silver economy paradigms, identifying both their achievements and their structural limits. It argues that growth-dependent approaches risk valuing older adults primarily for their economic contribution, while sidelining relational care and the commons—elements essential to justice within and among rural communities.

Through comparative case analysis of community-based initiatives in rural New York, the paper explores “micro-experiments” that align aging policy with post-growth principles, including the decommodification of care, valuation of informal caregiving, convivial technologies, shared infrastructure, and intergenerational solidarity. These cases illustrate both the promise and constraints of care-centered development in contexts marked by limited funding, regulatory complexity, and demographic imbalance.

Rather than advocating for abrupt degrowth, the paper advances an incremental, hybrid approach: embedding post-growth values within existing governance and economic structures. The paper contributes to emerging interdisciplinary conversations about what justice means for aging rural communities navigating demographic transition and ecological limits.