Neoliberal rationality and the age friendly cities and communities program: Reflections on the Toronto case

This article examines how neoliberalism works through the Age Friendly Cities and Communities (AFCCs) program through reflections on the Toronto case. While AFCCs appear to expand the social contract between senior citizens and the state, research illustrates discrepancies between program aims and implementation, relating gaps to cost cutting associated with neoliberal austerity. Drawing on Brown's (2015) work, I posit instead that neoliberalism does not just affect the implementation of AFCCs through economic policies of austerity but operates as a governing rationality that can economize the very design of the program. Specifically, I examine how the neoliberal techniques of benchmarking, governance, devolution and responsibilization operate through the AFCC program in Toronto. This analysis offers insight into the problems that plague AFCCs in Toronto and more broadly, including how neoliberalism works to more fundamentally change the social contract. At the same time, this analysis highlights tensions, forms of discontent and even dissent with neoliberalism that can create openings for alternative governing rationalities that expand the social contract to take root.