Themes of Inquiry

Aging Observatory explores the lived realities of aging through focused research themes that connect everyday experience with broader social, cultural, and environmental systems. Each theme is designed to illuminate how midlife adults (45–60) navigate change, adapt to pressures, and imagine their futures.

By building knowledge across these interconnected areas, the Observatory generates insights that can inform more inclusive, resilient, and regenerative approaches to policy, design, and technology.

Housing

The first research program of Aging Observatory centers on Housing.

Home is more than shelter; it is a safe space, both physically and emotionally, and a vital anchor of self-identity, independence, dignity, and belonging. The World Health Organization identifies housing as a key pillar of healthy aging, underscoring its role in well-being and care.

Research shows that older adults spend 80–95% of their time at home. Guided by this insight, the Housing pilot asks:

How will today’s adults aged 45–60 navigate housing in the decades ahead?

The program explores how and why housing evolves as bodies, roles, and needs shift, across four dimensions: structural choices (aging in place, downsizing, shared living, remote work), stability and access (ownership, renting, affordability, safety), context and belonging (neighborhood ties, climate pressures, emotional attachment), and meaning and futures (home as identity, dignity, and health; technologies and analog practices).

Together, these perspectives reveal the home as shelter, community, and health environment, and offer early insight into the challenges and possibilities of aging in motion.

Full list of themes:

Constraints and adaptation.

How individuals adapt to personal and structural constraints as they age, physically, socially, and environmentally. 
1/9
Transfer of time and money.

How financial support, unpaid labor, and time are redistributed across generations, often informally and invisible, within aging households and care systems. 
2/9
Caregiving and aging in place.

How individuals provide and receive care while remaining in familiar environments — and the emotional, logistical, and spatial adaptations that make this possible.
3/9
Bereavement.

How individuals experience and navigate loss, emotionally, socially, and structurally, and how grief reshapes identity, routines, and support networks over time.
4/9
Work and retirement.

How adults in midlife and beyond navigate changing relationships to work, identity, income, and purpose, and how transitions into retirement are shaped by broader economic, social, and cultural forces.
5/9
Political behavior.

How aging influences political participation, civic identity, and attitudes toward institutions, including shifts in engagement across life stages and social conditions.
6/9
Volunteering.

How older adults contribute time, skills, and care to their communities, and how volunteering supports identity, purpose, and social connection later in life.
7/9
Technologies.

How aging intersects with a rapidly accelerating technological era, including the rise of AI, automation, and digital identity. How individuals adapt, reject, or redefine their relationships with emerging tools that increasingly shape everyday life.
8/9
End of life and medical expenses.

How individuals and families navigate the emotional, financial, and practical realities of end-of-life planning and care, often under pressure, uncertainty, or limited support.
9/9