Multidimensional disparities, resisting inequities: A political ecology of aging in Uganda

Although geographers, particularly in the health and aging subfields, reveal how place-based factors interact to generate uneven health realities in old age, research often omits questions on the underlying conditions of health inequities in old age, the broader environmental contexts of disparities along with the multiscale mechanisms that shape uneven health outcomes among older populations. The context of Uganda is a unique landscape to engage health disparities in old age since older adults comprise a small, but growing proportion of the population and experience multidimensional health concerns yet are commonly sidelined in development agendas. Drawing on qualitative research with older adults and key informants, we argue that environmental processes can undermine possibilities for aging, health and survival by rendering mute availability, access, and use of key environmental resources, yet simultaneously provide openings for older adults to creatively resist inequities, generating hope and possibilities for more long-term survival. Social and ecological place-based dynamics can create new forms of social difference and age-based disparities, while in other instances re-work experiences of growing older, creating overlapping health constraints and possibilities for their modification. The findings highlight the importance of considering the multidimensional experiences of aging and the continuum of environments that can support them.