Dr Sophie Yarker is a Research Associate in Sociology at the University of Manchester. She has an academic background in Sociology and Human Geography with an interest in the scale of the neighbourhood and the impacts of urban change on our local communities. Sophie has published widely about community, urban change and how people relate to the places in which they live through the concepts of belonging and identity. With an interest in social exclusion Sophie’s work has come to focus on the experience of older people through her involvement with the Manchester Urban Ageing Research Group for which she is co-Deputy Director. Sophie’s research has focused on how we can create urban environments that meet the needs of different groups within the older population and support their social inclusion. Her work has most recently focused on the role of social infrastructures in supporting community cohesion and the contribution of older people to the social and civic lives of their communities.