Public Policies in Internet Inequality among Silvers. Selected Urban Policies

Abstract

The aim of the article is to present activities that, in the Author’s opinion, fit into the most current postulates of science in the field of modern care for seniors, in terms of digital inclusion. The Author collected global research on the digital well-being of people of post-productive age, and then compared them with selected examples of public policies implemented by two Polish cities: Warsaw and Poznań, and two associations of local government units, which are concentrated around relatively large urban centers. The choice of Warsaw is dictated by the relatively wide range of public services for seniors, as well as the possibility of positioning this city in relation to other European metropolises. In turn, Poznań has one of the oldest and still developing senior policies in Poland, which predisposes it to be an appropriate point of reference for other cities with similar characteristics (e.g. for Łódź, Gdańsk, Wrocław, Kraków).

It should be borne in mind when addressing the issue of senior policies that their addressees are a heterogeneous group. Starting from demographic variables, through spatial ones, we can talk about younger and older seniors, about seniors from large cities, smaller cities, or from villages. The group covered by the considerations of this article will be seniors, i.e. people of post-productive age, living in cities. Although the literature on the subject has already devoted a lot of space to defining the concept of “senior”, this discussion still remains unresolved, and the authors of individual publications usually operationalize the concept.