20 OCT 2025 (MON) 15:00-16:00

GEOG HKU
4 days ago
2 min read

Geography Distinguished Seminars Series

Aging Playfully: Reimagining Later Life Through Play (and Planning)

Date: 20 OCT 2025 (Monday)

Time: 15:00-16:00 (HKT)

Venue: CLL, Department of Geography, 10/F, The Jockey Club Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU

Registration link: TBC

Abstract:

In city planning, as in society, play is considered to be an activity only for children. But why? Play is a fundamental aspect of human nature. Moreover, it has incredible physical and mental benefits for people of all ages. In the public realm, play can cultivate, connect, and support relationships and community cohesion. I argue that play is particularly well suited to support the health and wellbeing of people as they age in older adulthood and should be considered a key planning consideration of age-friendly communities. Investigating the relationship between play, space, and older adult wellbeing offers an opportunity to challenge societal assumptions and expectations regarding later life, to reimagine the possibilities of play, and to rethink the potential of age-friendly communities.

Professor Maxwell Hartt

Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Planning and Director of the Population and Place Research Lab, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada

Maxwell Hartt is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Planning and Director of the Population and Place Research Lab at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada. He is currently a Craig Dobbin Scholar at University College Dublin in Ireland and holds a Fulbright Canada Research Chair at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, USA. He is an editor of the Journal of Planning Education and Research, and on the editorial boards of the Annals of the American Association of Geographers, International Planning Studies, and the Journal of Global Ageing. Dr. Hartt’s research focuses on geographies of, and policy responses to, demographic change. He is the Principal Investigator of the Depopulation Urbanism project and the Aging Playfully project, and a Co-Principal Investigator on the Student Housing Observatory. His latest book, “Aging Playfully: Reimagining the Possibilities of Age-Friendly Community Planning”, will be released in February 2026.