Guest Editor’s Introductory Note: Beyond “Otherness”: Independent Living, Liberation and Justice for Older Persons

Inhabiting plays a fundamental role in ensuring every person’s right to live a dignified, flourishing, and non-discriminatory life. This is all the more true for older persons, who have long been among those experiencing heightened social and spatial vulnerability, particularly when classified as “non-self-sufficient”. The right to independent living may be understood as a legal strategy to achieve this aim. Recognising the centrality of independent living and its legal significance, the essays in this focus share a common premise: the full humanity of older persons and the imperative to ensure them complete access to human and fundamental rights. From a variety of legal perspectives (and also in dialogue with the sociological one), the essays identify key conditions necessary to uphold this right, including the accessibility of rights, the promotion of active aging, and the strengthening of home care services.