Kar Him Mo

While age-friendly initiatives increasingly recognise the importance of play for recreational well-being in later life, its conceptualisation and the specific mechanisms driving it remain significantly underexplored, particularly among female older adults (FOAs). Addressing this critical gap, our study focuses on FOAs in Hong Kong’s high-density public housing estates (PHEs), a vital yet overlooked demographic in urban ageing research. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 52 participants, we integrated thematic analysis with fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), guided by the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework. This approach elucidates the complex interplay of factors facilitating FOAs’ playful engagement, with a specific focus on the roles of ageism and the built environment. Our findings reveal a multi-dimensional framework of FOA play, delineating five primary dimensions: Embodied Health Instrumentality, Collective Participation, Organisational Dependency, Generational Temporalities, and Implicit Playful Mindset. FOAs conceptualise play as a dual-purpose pursuit, bridging functional imperatives (e.g. health maintenance, cognitive stimulation) and recreational vitality (e.g. social engagement, emotional regulation). The fsQCA results yielded six distinct configurations that enable play, highlighting health aspirations and collective participation as core enablers, frequently synergised with an implicit playful mindset. Peripheral yet significant factors encompass favourable environmental quality, financial freedom, and the absence of loneliness or ageism. Beyond dismantling ageist stereotypes, this research establishes play as a critical missing element in contemporary age-friendly urban discourse. These findings offer transformative insights for reimagining inclusive urban environments that authentically accommodate diverse recreational expressions and combat the pervasive loneliness crisis among older adults in high-density contexts.

Neighborhood environment plays a central role in influencing older migrants' social interactions; yet, how these interactions are mediated by gendered roles, cultural norms, and spatial organization remains underexplored. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with Hong Kong-born women living in subsidized sheltered housing near Newcastle's Chinatown in June 2024, this study adopts a relational perspective to examine how socio-spatio-temporal dynamics shape everyday social engagement. Thematic analysis identifies three interconnected themes: social relationships, social life in place, and temporal change. The findings show that close-knit residential settings can both facilitate everyday interaction and intensify social tension, leading some women to avoid nearby communal spaces. Ethnic enclaves, such as Chinatown, function as important sites of belonging while also constraining wider social integration. Aging trajectories, caregiving responsibilities, and the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic further reshape social participation, with women's social engagement being particularly contingent on collective settings and social atmosphere. The study highlights the importance of staff-led routine activities, inclusive neighborhood spaces that accommodate caregiving, and targeted reinvestment in social infrastructure to support the social wellbeing of aging migrant women in the post-pandemic context.